A Question of Time
by RoseFrederick
Summary: It didn't add up. The gate system wasn't generally built for time travel, and they shouldn't have passed near any solar flare activity. So how the heck did SG-1 manage to find themselves 500 years into a really backwards future?
1. Not Kansas

This is a Stargate SG-1/Firefly crossover, dealing with the Firefly universe post-BDM (with some reference made to content in _Those Left Behind_), and the Stargate universe sometime in season, uh, well, sometime before Teal'c goes on tretonin where it's Daniel rather than Jonas – so let's say 5-ish. Any information about either series revealed beyond that is not automatically valid for this AU. The story is a completed draft at 16 chapters.

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**Chapter One: Not Kansas. Not Even Colorado, For Cryin' Out Loud!**

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"Well, it is definitely Ancient, I'm sure of that." The confident tone in which Daniel Jackson made this pronouncement as he peered up over his glasses from under the brim of his floppy hat did nothing in particular to appease the man he was speaking to.

"Right. Daniel, you've been staring at those rocks for four and a half hours now, and all you can say is that it's 'definitely Ancient' when you were 'pretty sure it was Ancient' a minute after we got here? Haven't you got anything more useful yet? Like maybe what this place is, or what that doohickey fascinating Carter does? Anything?"

As Daniel squinted at him with an expression long ago mentally dubbed 'annoyed geek face #5', Jack O'Neill rocked once back and forth on his feet in some impatience for the current conversation, hands stuffed into his pants pockets. He wasn't really annoyed with Daniel as much as he was already a bit bored with this mission. The good thing about P3Y-922 was that they didn't have a long hike to the area of interest and all indicators pointed to the place having been empty for a long time - so there were no cranky and unpredictable natives to have to worry about and a sudden Goa'uld visit was highly unlikely. The bad part was that for those same reasons there really wasn't much for him to do at all now that they'd set up camp.

The team were all decked out in desert colored BDUs as the closest analogue to the planet, although it wouldn't have provided them with any kind of proper camouflage were it required. While P3Y-922 was definitively a desert world, the local sand was an unusual red and the buildings they were camped out in were made of a stone that was an even darker hue with purple undertones. Overhead, two suns sat high in the sky, although thankfully the orbit of the planet was large enough that the heat was only uncomfortable rather than unbearable.

As soon as they'd finished the preliminary walk through the site Daniel had parked himself out here near the outer edges of what remained of the complex, immediately losing himself in study of the largest text inscription to be found. As it always paid to be just a bit paranoid while off-world, that left Jack lurking in his general area with nothing to do but stare out at seemingly endless expanses of red sand.

While Jack was out here making sure nothing they'd missed in their initial surveys snuck up on Daniel, Teal'c was inside the intact central portion of the complex with Carter. The largest room there, which was also the central one to the site, contained the Stargate itself and Carter had followed a trace signal to a slightly smaller chamber containing what seemed to be an untouched treasure trove of doohickeys in various states of functionality.

After a put-upon sigh, Daniel managed to keep nearly all of the annoyance out of his voice, though it was obviously a matter of supreme patience and restraint if his expression was anything to go by. "No, Jack. As you can see, there was quite a lot of text here to begin with but it's been out in the elements so long most of it has been worn away entirely." Daniel waved a hand across the expanse of wall in emphasis. The fact that there were markings all across it was clear even to Jack's untrained eye, but the garnet hued stone was worn away into a pockmarked and uneven surface where it was hard to make out much more than vague impressions of deliberate carving – except for just a few spaces that had remained sheltered enough from the elements to indicate the whole surface had once been polished smooth.

Even as much as they'd all seen Ancient script by this point, Jack wouldn't have bet either way as to whether or not it actually was that language on the basis of his own eyes. They'd come across enough bastardized versions of the underlying language by now to know that vaguely similar letter shapes wasn't enough to be conclusive. While Jack was squinting at the wall with little real interest and contemplating the likelihood there would be anything legible (let alone useful) to be had here, the archaeologist continued expounding on the find and explaining his still-tentative identification, "Unfortunately, from what I can make out it's in some kind of obscure dialect of Ancient from the grammar in this nearly complete section over here, actually an almost more primitive form than what we previously saw on Heliopolis rather than the later evolutions we usually see, so I thought if I-"

"Aht! Fine, fine. You ... translate away." O'Neill interrupted the flow of words while gesturing grandly at the wall and then promptly sauntered off to an unreasonable distance for further conversation before the archaeologist could try to explain in detail or declare he needed more time or another team to work on deciphering the text. P3Y-922 had come up randomly on the mission roster and Daniel had been quite excited by the evidence of extensive ruins even before they'd done a thorough enough exploration to realize there was writing on some of them.

At the same time Carter had gotten her first readings indicating a low-level energy signature coming from one of the central buildings that didn't seem to bear much similarity to anything they had encountered before now. While he didn't mind the occasional quiet mission to keep his scientists happy, from the size of the place, the extensiveness of the writings (no matter how illegible), and the fact that Carter had located multiple additional inactive devices in the room where she was currently analyzing the broadcasting one, it was obvious that SG-1 was only here to get a temporary survey of the site's boons and hazards before one of the more specialized long-term study teams took over.

Still, as obvious as that was to him, and therefore indubitably it must be even more so to his geeks, neither one of them would be able to resist asking for just a few more hours or just one more day. It wasn't that he wanted to spend all his time being chased by squads of Jaffa, but sitting around while the two of them tinkered wasn't his idea of fun either. After the first few sweeps, there were only so many times it was actually needful to check the perimeter on a planet that was unoccupied and had just as obviously been that way for quite some time.

Their first thorough explorations upon arriving at the site had made that clear. Even if the thick layers of undisturbed dust and sand hadn't said enough, there were simply too many portable doohickeys sitting around the Gao'uld would have scavenged had they ever been here. The address being part of the Ancient data from when his brains got scrambled by the head sucker added to the unlikelihood that would change anytime soon. Likewise, the miles and miles of sand in every direction were a pretty good indication of no locals to speak of. SG-1's luck being what it was, there were no guarantees, but even they didn't run into trouble every mission. Combining all the MALP's initial readings and their own thorough checks of the site on arrival, this mission was more likely than not to simply involve watching the scientists work.

By the third day of walking the site in between keeping a weather eye on Daniel, the Colonel was increasingly bored and seriously lamenting what a shame it was he'd already managed to run the batteries down on his Game Boy. Worse, he'd forgotten to replace his backups since the last research mission. While looking for some other way to entertain himself, O'Neill started going through a mental checklist of options. He'd already bugged Daniel in the last ten minutes, and Carter had given him _that look_ only an hour or so ago. Teal'c was on his own watch and wouldn't want to be distracted, at least not again today, even though it was more a formality than anything. It hadn't been that long since lunch. Which left him with pretty much no options in the entertainment department, aside from another walk around the ruins staring out into sand and more sand, and Teal'c was already doing a bang-up job on that front.

With nothing better in the offing, he found an empty spot with a good overview of the area and sat back against an upright column of stone separate from the walls around it. Jack assumed from the prominence of its position that it had probably been the Ancient equivalent of a 'welcome' or 'you are here' sign back before all evidence of text had worn away. It seemed like a good enough place to relax for the duration. He figured he'd take a nap until it was time to herd the scientists to their next meal, and adjusted his cap downward over his eyes to do just that.

SG-1 was not generally inattentive or careless, but there was only so long it was reasonable to remain on high alert on a clearly deserted planet. The other three members of the team were elsewhere doing their own things, and with his back to the wall and his eyes closed, Jack O'Neill was in no position to notice the previously unmarked span of stone behind him flash to life with runes for a few seconds when he leaned back against it.

At that same instant, another device hummed to life in a different part of the complex, and that could have potentially clued the team in to the fact something was happening. Unfortunately, it was located in an otherwise empty chamber just off the room containing the Stargate and appeared to be a large, octagonal slab of the same rock material as the walls and floor. Since it was also lacking in any visible ornamentation when they'd explored the room earlier, the team had dismissed it as an empty pedestal for some now missing artifact. They'd have surely paid it more attention if they had been able to detect the buried connections running under the floor and through the wall into the adjoining chamber where it hooked into the DHD itself.

All of the devices of obvious interest were located elsewhere, and that's where the team was concentrating their attention. So even if there had been a great light show of blinking indicators when it turned on (instead of only a very slight power spike), no one would have been there to see it. In the given circumstances it would have taken an extraordinary event of luck for the activation of the device to have been detected, so SG-1 continued about their mission oblivious to the fact that something had changed.

A couple days later Jack was supervising as they were finally, _finally_ packing up everything and getting ready to leave. SG-21 would be taking over in a week or so, extensively cataloging the site as a follow-up to this assessment visit, but that wasn't his problem. Nope, Jack O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 would be moving on to some other excitingly new planet - after a bit of downtime, anyway. While Carter and Daniel were obviously somewhat displeased about having to give up their shiny new toys to the other geeks, _he_ was certainly more than ready to step back through the gate to the mountain and leave this place behind, and Jack suspected Teal'c was just as happy to get a move on. Not that it was easy to tell under all that stoic facade, but Jack thought so. The happy thought of a mission completed without incident kept him preoccupied all through the repacking process, and soon enough the gear was ready and his team was gathered, so it was time.

"Dial us home, Daniel."

They sent the FRED with the equipment that wasn't being left behind for the science team through first, and then SG-1 stepped through the event horizon with the assumption in all their minds that they'd find their next steps clanking down on the metal of the gate room ramp in the SGC. Unbeknownst to them, the activated device in the next room surged once before shutting itself back off again.

All was quiet on the planet until an hour later, when the gate reactivated. No one came through, although the MALP that had been left off to one side at the base of the gate began to pan its camera arm around, taking in the empty room illuminated only by the rippling blue-toned light coming off the Stargate. Through the speaker on the device, the voice of General Hammond of the SGC asking for SG-1 to report in and explain why they were overdue bounced off the walls of the empty complex.

When SG-3 was sent through several hours later to attempt to find and/or rescue SG-1, they didn't discover any better answers about what had happened to the errant team. From what SG-1 had reported during their various check-ins, the site was exactly as it had been described. There were no signs of a struggle and none of the devices scattered around the site seemed to be doing anything, nor did they show any sign of having been recently activated. When one of their Gate experts was sent through to attempt to discern the last dialed addresses on the gate by examining the DHD, the man reported that so far as he could tell SG-1 had dialed Earth and nowhere else. That SG-1 had dialed Earth was known, since the FRED loaded with equipment had shown up in the gateroom at the scheduled return time, but the lack of any further activity was puzzling. The monitoring devices SG-1's Samantha Carter had reported installed on the planet were all in place, functioning correctly, and showed no indication of any kind of ship activity around the planet. All of those results were rechecked several times, but no discrepancies could be found, and thus, absolutely no explanation for the absence of SG-1 presented itself.

Left with no indication of what had happened to the SGC's premiere team, the proposed long-term stay of a research group at the site was put on indefinite hold. A number of the scientists at the SGC complained bitterly about that, but with no idea what had gone wrong on the planet, it wasn't a risk General Hammond was willing to take, and his superiors agreed with him. Despite that, he still expected SG-1 to come waltzing back through the Gate at any time, explaining how yet another unbelievable set of events had happened to them. Although as the days began to pass in increasing number with no sign of the missing team, that became harder and harder to keep believing.

When the wormhole spat them out, SG-1 did not find themselves on the metal ramp of the Gate room as they expected. Instead, they found themselves stepping out of a Gate on a desolate planet. The climate felt very similar to the planet they had just left, although the coloration of the terrain around them, while also being barren, was in a far more Earth-typical palette. The new location also lacked any evidence of structures or ruins of structures. There was nothing in particular to be seen except the Stargate itself, which had a great deal of sandy soil built up around its base. The distant horizon was visible across endless-seeming spans of flat and lifeless terrain in all directions, stretching as far as the eye could see. From the intensity and positioning of the single sun situated overhead, Jack guessed it was probably around mid-afternoon local time.

The situation was as lacking in promise as it was in explanation, and that made Jack feel extra cranky. "Daniel! _This_ is _not_ the SGC. Surely you know the address for home by _now_?"

Before Daniel got too far in his vehement denials that he had, in fact, dialed Earth, Carter interrupted, "Uh, sir, we have a bigger problem here."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed solemnly.

Taking another look around for himself, no one had to clarify. Jack had already seen what they had, he just hadn't been the first to register its significance. There was no DHD. It was about now it also occurred to O'Neill that the equipment they'd sent through just ahead of themselves had not arrived here with them either. An additional oddity, but not the most relevant one as anything truly useful, like say a naquada generator that would allow them to manually dial the Gate, had been left behind on P3Y-922 anyway. Wherever it was they were, there was no easy way back home.

While the rest of the team was taking in the particulars of their current situation, Daniel was still spluttering denials. "I dialed Earth, Jack! I don't know how we could have ended up here... wherever here is. Could there be another Earth Gate like the one in Antarctica?"

Jack brushed aside answering the archaeologist in favor of asking his own questions of the only one of them likely to have a clue what had gone wrong. "Carter, any idea what happened? Or where the heck we are? Or even better, how to get us home?"

"I'm afraid not, sir." She had stopped to pull some kind of doohickey out of her pack and turn it on while they'd been talking, and she consulted it intently before continuing. "I'm not picking up any kind of radio or other transmission signals that would indicate we're on Earth. Once it gets dark I may be able to figure out our relative location from the stars," she paused in fiddling with the instrument to look him in the eye. "I am getting an unknown faint energy signature some distance off in that direction," she gestured vaguely off to the left. "If there are people here, we might be able to obtain some kind of power source to dial the Gate manually. Without a DHD or any of our portable generators we don't have a lot of options, Colonel."

Readjusting his sunglasses, O'Neill gestured grandly towards the same horizon Carter had just indicated, since there was no point in lingering here. "Well, campers, I guess we move out in that direction."

Nothing like a long hike across a desolate planet, Jack thought sarcastically. At least they weren't being chased by hordes of angry Jaffa. Yet. He really should have learned better than to complain he was bored by now.

They had been walking for some little while already when Daniel piped up again. Honestly, Jack was a little surprised it had taken this long, but glances at the man had shown he was deep in thought as they'd walked along, his brow almost comically furrowed. "So, what do you think happened? I definitely dialed Earth, so something else must have interfered. If we didn't end up at a Gate on Earth, did we end up jumping to one somewhere between Earth and P3Y-922? And why would that have happened? Last time a Gate went to the wrong location it was because an energy beam struck the Gate and caused it to jump, but there shouldn't have been anything back on that planet to cause this."

Unsurprisingly, being the only one of them with extensive technical knowledge of the workings of the Gate, Carter replied. "Without any idea of where we've ended up or what happened back on P3Y-922, there's really no way to tell what malfunctioned. Hopefully we'll be able to find something other than barren wasteland on this planet or we're in real trouble. I have a couple theories, but ..." and at that point, Jack tuned the actual words of her reply out in favor of just listening to the cadence of her voice. She'd already said she didn't really know, and anything after that was just speculative technobabble she'd repeat if it became relevant.

It was right about two and a half hours of walking by his watch before some variation that wasn't minor scrub brush appeared on the horizon. It seemed to be some kind of outcropping in the distance that was too regular to be natural rock. The land had gradually become more uneven as they'd moved along and the strange rocks were placed atop a plateau that dropped off to a much hillier region below. As they got close enough, Carter identified the grouping as the source of the strange low-level energy reading she'd detected. Still, they were nearly on top of the stones before they could make out anything other than rock. Once they'd reached them and circled around to get a better look, however, it became apparent what they were and why they were setting off Carter's doohickey.

Each of three smoothed, short pillars was topped with an odd little holographic projector showing a smiling person. It was obvious they were some kind of grave marker or memorial. Daniel and Carter were both fascinated – her with the technology and him with the prospect of a new, previously unencountered civilization. Unfortunately for both Daniel's enthusiasm and their prospects of finding help, the three stones were still the only evidence they could see of any kind of man made development in the area.

"Someone had to have put this memorial here, and it's not likely they would have bothered with something like this if no one was going to come back and visit it. Of course with this level of technology, the settlement these people are from doesn't necessarily have to be within walking distance. They could be all the way on the other side of the planet for all we know," Daniel mused absently, clearly intrigued. "Actually, they wouldn't even have to even be on _this_ planet at all."

"That would be most unfortunate, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c had a real gift for understatement, Jack mused.

"Well, let's hope they are around, huh? You getting any other readings from elsewhere to give us a direction to go from here, Carter?"

The doohickey came back out. Carter looked at it fairly intently for a while, fiddling with the settings, but in the end she said, "No, sir. I'm not getting anything else."

By this time, the sun in the sky that had been beating down on them had finally started to inch nearer the far horizon. They hadn't left P3Y-922 early in their day, and now they had been walking across a deserted, arid plain for a couple of hours. If it was getting on down to evening already locally, perhaps it was time to set up camp and settle in for the night and hope a fresh start in the morning might give them some better idea of where to go from here. It was tempting to go on through the night, because they did not have the extra water and supplies they would need for a prolonged stay in a place like this, but they were all already tired, except for maybe Teal'c, and there were no obvious signs here to show in which, if any, direction they might find the people who had built the small set of memorials.

There was also a little bit of hope that they might be able to see some kind of lights in the distance once it got dark, and Carter needed to be set up to observe the stars anyway to see if they could figure out at least what part of the galaxy they were in. Regardless of how they spent their night, they were going to be in trouble pretty fast if they didn't find some kind of civilization - or at the very least sources for food and water. The SGC always made their teams pack as much as was feasible to carry, just because of the likelihood of strange and unexpected delays like this. However, the stationary nature and duration of the mission they'd just been on meant they didn't have a whole lot in the way of backup supplies at the moment.

Several hours later, once they'd unpacked their gear and settled in long enough to give Carter time to do some calculations, it was definitively confirmed they were not on Earth. Even though Carter had already said it was unlikely from the lack of detectable electronic activity and atmospheric pollutants – not to mention that the weird tombstones they'd found were definitely not standard Earth tech in their time - there had still been a part of him hoping they'd found another Earth Gate. If they were on Earth, even if they were in some back end of beyond desert somewhere, or hell, accidentally traveled in time again, they had a better chance of survival than if they had ended up on a wholly uninhabited planet who knew where. Carter was attempting to use her laptop to calculate from the star positions exactly where they were, but knowing they weren't on Earth or any of the planets they'd already visited was enough to be going on with right now.

There was no luck on the spotting distant lights front, either. It pretty much looked as if the plan would have to be to pick a direction at random at the first sign of morning light and hope for the best. Definitely not one of their better plans. It did occur to him there might be a better chance of them finding people, or at least water before they ran out, if the team split up to search in different directions. The very real possibility of them running into potentially hostile natives without each other as backup did not sit at all well, though. Someone had put up those markers. Mourning their dead didn't necessarily make them friendlies.

As he'd been thinking the options over, Carter had petered off in the science talk about star positions and the group had settled in to eat. Daniel took it upon himself to take up the slack of conversation over their MREs. "It's a very strange monument, really, so far as burial customs go. It's not part of a larger burial ground as far as I can tell, and there's no notation that it's commemorating deaths related to a specific event - which would explain the isolation from whatever the usual burial ground is. It seems unlikely they would have incorporated such a fancy display if no one visited the site, though."

"Well, I can't be entirely sure without taking them apart, but so far as I can tell, the devices aren't that much more sophisticated than devices we have on Earth now, thanks to the alien technologies we've acquired. Which means they wouldn't work indefinitely without replacement parts or recharging. That doesn't mean there will be people nearby, though. It could be here because it's commemorating some out-of-the-way crash site for an advanced civilization. Although from this level of tech, I should be getting other readings than just from these devices. Well, unless they are way beyond us technologically, and the memorials don't bear that out."

The two scientists spent a little more time speculating, but O'Neill just let the voices of his team wash over him without adding any commentary. It wasn't too long before they were settling in for the night to sleep in their regular watch pattern, as they would be better off getting a fresh start as early as possible. The heat of the sun beating down on them in the midday hours hadn't been unbearable, but in such a barren place, it hadn't been exactly fun, either. Hopefully the new day would bring something more promising than this one had.

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A/N: I have no idea if the funereal scene at the end of _Serenity_ is supposed to be taking place on Haven, Mr. Universe's moon, or somewhere else entirely. As far as I'm aware, the only indicator given script-wise is "a desert planet" so for the purposes of this fic, I'm placing it in the location that's most convenient to this story.

This story has been sitting in my projects folder, ostensibly complete, for about two years now. There are parts I'm quite happy with, and others I really still feel lack a certain something. However, it seems clear at this point that if I don't start posting I never will, so I'm calling it ready.


	2. The Verse-That-Is

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**Chapter Two: The Verse-That-Is**

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By the time the first blush of light began to spread across the horizon and his turn on watch was coming to a close as the others started to stir, O'Neill had come to the conclusion that it would be better to split themselves into twos to search. It wasn't ideal, but with no indication of what direction they might find people or resources in, it would halve their search time without leaving anyone completely vulnerable if there were hidden perils just out of sight.

Jack didn't have a whole lot of hope they'd actually find anything with as utterly deserted as this world had proved so far. They'd walked for hours the previous day with no sign other than the Stargate and the memorials that anyone had ever visited this planet. After they broke camp in the morning, he and Carter set off across the sand in one direction, and Teal'c and Daniel headed off in one almost directly opposite. Since Carter had the fancy technology detection gadget (she'd had a spare in her pack she'd given to Daniel, too), he wasn't paying too much attention to anything beyond scanning the horizon for hope or trouble. Sadly, it was one of the least exciting landscapes they'd had the displeasure to be marooned in. He often complained about all the trees, but right at the moment, he definitely missed the things – although the lack should make it easier to spot anything worth spotting if there were things worth spotting to be spotted.

Caught up in his own thoughts as he was, it took him a moment or three to register Carter coming to a sudden stop after they'd been walking for a while – perhaps half an hour since Teal'c had called to make the second of their agreed upon fifteen minute interval check-ins.

"Sir, I'm picking up a very faint energy signature ahead of us. It didn't register before because the memorials were between us and whatever it is. The signal's so weak those power signatures were drowning it out." Carter looked cautiously hopeful, but even he realized that the faintness of the readings might mean they were getting hopeful over nothing.

Still, it was their first indication of anything else on this planet beyond sand and rocks, so he pulled out his radio. "Teal'c. Daniel. Carter's found another weak energy source somewhere ahead of us. Hopefully it'll turn out to be something. You guys got anything?"

"We have as yet found nothing, O'Neill."

"Right. Keep looking. We'll let you know if this turns out to be something useful. O'Neill out."

The two of them moved onward, veering slightly as indicated by the power signature they were seeking. The further they'd moved away from the Stargate, the less flat the landscape had become. Upon stepping through the Gate, Jack's first impression had been a sandy, featureless plain stretching to the horizon, but that had been something of an illusion. The flatness had given way to small dips and rolls and a few minor hills before they'd come to the memorials on a plateau, and since then they'd been on a bit of a downward hike, with periodic rises. It was coming over the lip of one of the larger of these hillsides that they came into view of what looked to be some kind of settlement ahead. It was certainly something man made, at least. As they gradually walked closer, the first thing to be fairly distinguishable looked like abandoned mining equipment set some distance closer to them than a moderate sized cluster of buildings a bit further away, all of it tucked into a shallow but fairly long valley.

Carter made no move in the direction of the equipment, which he figured as a pretty clear indication that the energy readings were originating from further ahead. Regardless, any help for their current predicament would most likely be found somewhere in the buildings, so they kept going. The closer they got, the more strange the lack of any sign of movement was, although the why of it became clear as soon as they were close enough to make out individual structures. All of the buildings were in a state of fairly severe disrepair, and to his eye, it was quite clear a great deal of that was the aftermath of some kind of attack. Most were blackened in places with blast marks and a few were partially collapsed. O'Neill radioed back to the other half of SG-1 to update them on the find before he and Carter moved cautiously forward, fully alert, to enter the ruins.

When they had first gotten close enough to see the damage, but were still at something of a distance, he'd wondered if the town had fallen under a relatively recent Goa'uld attack. Once they were actually standing amidst the ruins, however, it was obvious that was not the case. For one, the torn up partial form of a downed ship was obviously not Goa'uld in design. It was also clear upon closer inspection of the damage to the structures that it had been done by weapons more like the SGC's than the energy weapons the snakes favored. Walking through to the opposite edge of the small settlement, they found there was a much larger, cruder grave site on the other side. There was absolutely no indication the place was currently inhabited, and it had a very empty and abandoned feeling, as if it had been months or years since anyone had been around. Despite that, they decided to wait until Teal'c and Daniel arrived to more thoroughly search the buildings for food stores, water, and Carter's mystery energy signature. There was a small chance there might still be hidden and potentially hostile natives, despite how desolate the place seemed. The possibility of booby traps or simply unsafe conditions from the wrecked state of the buildings also factored into the decision.

Once SG-1 was reunited and began their search, it turned out to be a fairly fruitful one. Working plumbing was in place, obviously accessing some kind of underground water source, and they found plenty of canned foods which were covered in only a thin layer of dust. They couldn't be entirely sure until they were opened they were actually fresh since there wasn't a decipherable date stamp that made any sense, but the labels all had similar dates and did look promisingly unfaded. As food was a main priority, they did go ahead and crack one open immediately to check the contents, and it was indeed still edible. A decent source of food and water assured that their imminent survival was taken care of, a relief that allowed them to get back to worrying about everything else.

It took a fair amount of exploring amongst the partially destroyed buildings, but they finally found Carter's mystery energy source to be some kind of computer-terminal device that, aside from leading them to the settlement, did nothing useful. It was obviously on its last gasp of stored power and Carter was unable to get it to do anything but blink the equivalent of a low battery warning light. There was nothing here obviously powerful enough to start up the Gate, but it was possible some of the mining equipment motors scattered around might do chained together. Of course, that was contingent on getting any of it to still work and then moving it the required distance to the Gate – the latter part would be the real trick. They'd powered a Gate with a bunch of jeeps before, after all.

According to his team's two science geeks, the technological state of the settlement was somewhat perplexing. After seeing the holographic projectors on the grave site, Carter explained they should have expected to find a much greater level of technological advancement apparent within the town. However, with the exception of that single computer terminal, everything here was much less advanced than the markers implied. In fact, the little town was nearly primitive by Earth's current standards, let alone those of their more advanced allies. It seemed like a strange contradiction, but there could be reasons for it. Daniel suggested that perhaps the settlement was a distant colony outpost from a more advanced civilization centered elsewhere. Considering the relative size of the settlement, Carter agreed that was possible, and perhaps even probable. Although her pet theory had more to do with a civilization that had degenerated from a previous higher level of technology but retained just a few advanced capabilities. As much as the two of them were enjoying discussing it, explaining the settlement wasn't of any particular import to improving their situation or getting them home.

It wasn't a problem so long as the two of them did it during their downtime. The first few days, all four of them assisted Carter in a task that could help toward their actual goals - investigating the various equipment abandoned around the settlement, looking for anything powerful and portable enough to use in an attempt to power the Stargate. Once they'd found pretty much everything at the site with a power source, however, there wasn't a whole lot they could really assist her with. Since there was no reason for them to all stand around being in the way, Daniel went back to looking further into the settlement, attempting to unearth something from the buildings to tell them more about the people that had lived here. Mostly all he was able to find was a couple additional darkened terminals with no power reserves at all and some personal possessions that just confirmed the civilization was fairly advanced in some ways at yet very backwards in others. Basically, nothing they didn't already know, but it kept the archaeologist busy and it wasn't impossible he'd turn up something that could help Carter along the way. Jack and Teal'c lent their hands whenever either of the scientists needed assistance with anything, but spent more time keeping an eye out on the perimeter, since their best bet was still getting assistance from someone else coming through the town.

A week went by, wherein Carter attempted to come up with a way to chain and transport what energy sources they had managed to find. There were a few major obstacles in her way. For one, the only vehicle in the place seemed to be the downed ship, which was shot to hell and definitely not going to be flying again without repairs they just didn't have the equipment to make. The other major hurdle was that a lot of the power sources from the large, immovable mining equipment were hard wired into security devices, presumably to make sure it wasn't easy for bandits and thieves to raid the settlement for batteries as SG-1 was attempting to do. Carter was slowly working her way around them, but it was taking more time than she liked. For the relative level of technology in the equipment itself, she was finding herself frustrated with just how highly advanced the security measures on the power sources were. She did have a few ideas on how to chain everything together, but there was no way to test any of them until she actually managed to separate out the power cells.

It was when Carter was in the middle of updating them on this lack of notable progress as of yet when they discovered the first sign that there was someone else alive on the planet with them. They were talking over their mid-afternoon meal of canned supplies they'd acquired from around the town when the sound of an engine coming down out of the clear blue sky above broke into their conversation. The four of them exchanged looks of surprise at the unexpected company; at this point, they'd all been fairly sure the relative chance anyone would be coming back to this part of the planet before they got the Gate working themselves was vanishingly small. They had set up their camp in the most intact building near the center of the settlement, so they all moved to the windows, trying to get a view out at whatever was overhead, hopefully without giving away their own presence.

Daniel was the one to first spot the craft, and he called the others over to get their own look at it. Even from a distance, it was definitely one of the strangest ships they'd ever seen, almost animal-like in its design, and it didn't really resemble any of the ship types they'd come across from other civilizations before. Jack's first thought was that the craft was headed somewhere else and just happened to be coming down on a path that took it almost directly over the abandoned town. As he watched, however, the craft visibly hesitated, almost hovering overhead, and instead ended up setting down right outside the buildings on the furthest outskirts of the town. Over Daniel's objections, O'Neill indicated they should remain silent and hidden until they had some better idea of who and what had just landed here. He didn't like the feeling he had that the craft had changed direction.

By this time, SG-1 had been wrong on enough away missions to know that the way things seemed was not always the way they actually were. So even though they had found the settlement deserted and no indications – from either detectable energy readings or any records in the town of other settlements on the planet – they had been cautious enough to leave no obvious traces of their presence. In this kind of situation, there were just too many unknowns to risk letting someone else dictate whether or not they revealed themselves, no matter how unlikely it was they'd have company. Which was why they were all stunned when a group of people, led by a teenage girl, walked into town and headed directly for the building they were in.

The girl was followed by a group of three adults, all of them visibly armed, though less heavily so than SG-1 and with nothing that looked more advanced than standard firearms from what he could see. As the small parade got closer to their position, Jack mentally assessed their options. He didn't know how the people knew they were here – but it wasn't impossible that they had some kind of advanced technology indicating SG-1's presence. It seemed pretty impossible they could be choosing this building at random or looking for something in it specifically, as it was a small dwelling the team had thoroughly investigated. There was nothing here of note other than SG-1. With limited knowledge of the general situation and these people in particular, staying where they had good cover and waiting to see what this new group did was clearly the best option.

Attempting to assess the group as to their level of threat and what they might want, Jack looked them over more closely. His first reaction was perplexity, as he couldn't figure out why they other three were playing follow-the-leader to a perfectly normal-looking teenage girl. Well, aside from pairing motorcycle boots with a sundress, but what did he know about teenage girl fashion on Earth, let alone here? Goa'uld didn't generally choose such young hosts, and if this was was an abnormal one who did, it should still be backed by Jaffa, not humans, and her companions were clearly humans. Aside from her age, it was apparent why she was the one in the lead, as she seemed far more sure of where the group was heading than the others. She was looking straight at the building containing SG-1, whereas her companions were looking more generally around the deserted town, and not just because they were clearly keeping a look out for trouble.

He got a definite military vibe off of the man and the woman walking closest behind her; it was just something in the way they carried themselves. Yet they didn't seem to be acting as part of a military now, as they lacked uniforms and their blatantly displayed weaponry was not any kind of standard armaments. Also, as much as they were definitely following the lead of the girl, it was obviously the male half of this pair that they all kept turning to for confirmation of their course – definitely the leader. The fellow in back was his own special category, too. A big brute who looked rather displeased to be there, but kept along their back very watchful nonetheless. His bearing screamed mercenary, and he was the only one to actually have a weapon drawn. Yet a pair of soldiers – or former soldiers, probably – had left him to guard their sixes. As a group, they really didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Jack hadn't really expected them to enter the building, yet it was still a bit startling when they came to a stop within speaking distance and the girl jerked her head in their direction and nodded at the one Jack had already pegged to be the leader. That supposition was definitively confirmed when, of the four people, he was the one to speak, with his voice pitched loud enough to be heard clearly by SG-1. "Any chance you folks wanna come out and perhaps clarify what you're doing lurking in this here burned out town?"

They really could use some information as to the local situation, and these people, whoever they were, didn't seem overly hostile yet, despite the blatantly displayed guns. They had even numbers and way more firepower, but these people obviously had some way to detect they were here, so there was no telling what else they might be hiding. From all angles he could see, attempting to talk things out first was the only prudent way to go. Therefore, "Daniel? You're up."

The archaeologist moved from his position behind the others, across the room and out into the open frame of the doorway. "Hello. My name is Daniel Jackson. We didn't mean any harm, we're peaceful explorers who came here through the Stargate by accident and couldn't get back without the dialing device..."

In a tone of patent disbelief, the archaeologist was cut short. "Explorers? Ain't you folks a few hundred years late seein' as how the whole system was mapped out afore they even did any terraforming past the Core? And what in the _tian xiao de _is a Stargate, anyhow?"

"Um, perhaps you call it something else. The Chappa'ai?" As they continued to look skeptical – other than the girl, whose expression hadn't changed at all since the group came to a stop – he added, "The big stone circle some distance in that direction? We're not from around here, our world is very far away, we come from a planet called Earth."

The whole group gawped at him then, and seemed to be at a loss for words – the fellow who'd been speaking even going so far as to open his mouth to reply and then close it again several times before apparently giving up – again, except for the girl. She didn't seem remotely surprised by whatever had flabbergasted the others, though she did actually show an awareness and respond this time. She cocked her head to one side in a very bird-like fashion and said, in a slightly abstracted tone, "The doorway to heaven."

"Ye-s." Daniel drew the word out. Jack figured that he was expecting that some kind of further response would be forthcoming since the girl apparently knew what he was talking about, even if her companions seemed clueless. She didn't say anything more, however, and they were left staring at each other in awkward silence, as it seemed her companions, too, had expected her to elucidate further.

"Soooo." Before Daniel could try yet another tack, Jack O'Neill stepped out into the space of the doorway behind Daniel, having grown impatient with waiting. Whereas Daniel hadn't taken his weapon and hadn't caused too much alarm amongst their visitors, his own appearance casually holding a P-90 definitely caused clear, if hastily suppressed, alarm among them. Not that any of them did anything so obvious as pulling up their own weapons, but all three of the adults tensed just a little. Their leader also shot an annoyed look at the girl, which was interesting. There was definitely something odd going on with her. Why would she be expected to know, but the rest of them weren't? If she was the most knowledgeable, how come she wasn't the one in charge? They were interesting questions in terms of determining the group's dynamic, however they weren't the most important thing so far as O'Neill was concerned. "You folks local? Perhaps know of any nicely portable energy sources we could use to power the Gate and get the heck outta here?"

"Right," the leader drawled at him, "so you can go back to Earth-That-Was? With your obviously military uniforms and your very peacefully large gun? I grant you manage to look like you ain't from the Alliance, but I can't reckon what you expect to get from spinning us a yarn like ..."

"Telling the truth," the girl interrupted him, her tone chiding.

"River, darin', what ..." the man trailed off of his own volition, seeming to be at a loss for words again, while the big guy at the back of their group snorted and shifted in impatience, which caused the three adults to move back a little bit to have their own hushed conversation that Jack wasn't able to make out. The only thing he was sure of was that the big guy was looking clearly unhappy about something.

Even though they were all a bit caught up in trying to process _Earth-That-Was_, Jack still noted that the leader of the group seemed to immediately believe what the girl had said, even if it also seemed to annoy and perplex him. Before O'Neill got around to reiterating his questions to draw the group's attention back, and perhaps get a little belligerent about it, Carter's voice came from behind him. "Sir, ask them what year it is," she directed at him in a near-whisper, looking worried.

_ Oh, crap, _he thought. That would definitely explain the strange way they referred to Earth in the past tense, but Jack hadn't even considered that possibility – possibly because it was a really, really unwelcome one.

As the group of strangers was still tied up in their own conversation, Daniel took the opportunity to turn back and address Carter, his brow wrinkled in confusion. "Shouldn't we have ended up back on the same planet if we traveled through time? We can't be in the same place."

Carter's expression was no less perplexed. "I don't know, Daniel. The DHD's protocols should automatically compensate for things like solar flares and prevent accidental time travel, too. I'm not sure what's going on here."

Not liking the potential complications his team was coming up with at all, he tried to play it all off. "Y'know, Carter, the last time someone tried to convince us we were in a different time, it was a Goa'uld trap."

Although the girl had not previously appeared to be paying attention to either of the conversations going on around her, she turned her chiding tone on Jack to respond to this last comment. "Not a snake. Ew." She made a disgusted face to accompany the words, and then turned to look through the wall to exactly where Cater was crouched and added, "2519."

There was absolutely no possible way the girl had heard Carter's whisper – unless she was something other than plain human. Which definitely correlated to how the others were deferring to her, yet she didn't act like a Goa'uld and said she wasn't one. Of course, that could be a lie, but he didn't think so. Despite what he'd suggested, they had been left unmolested on this desolate rock for quite a bit longer than he figured the average Goa'uld's patience lasted.

So how did the girl know exactly where Carter was and hear her question? She could be some kind of hok'taur or be relying on some concealed technology. Maybe the Ancients hadn't been the only ones to gene-lock their toys, and that was why she knew but wasn't in charge? Any of the options made him a bit uneasy considering the precariousness of their current position. Still, for the most part, the group in front of them seemed as confused as his own people were and no more overtly hostile, so the situation could be worse. In terms of making things better, if the girl already knew about all of them being in the building, continuing to have half the team crouched out of sight wasn't terribly friendly, as Daniel would say, and they could really use some allies here.

"Well. O-kay. Perhaps we should all have a chat, then," he smiled brightly and spoke in a similarly positive tone, "As Daniel mentioned, my team and I came through the Stargate meaning to go somewhere and apparently somewhen else. We're stranded here, 'til Carter figures out how to get us home. Carter. Teal'c. Come say howdy! What are you folks up to on this fine day?"

They eyed him for his jovial tone with the same look they'd given Daniel for saying they'd come from Earth. Although the flummoxed expressions didn't last as long, since their attention was quickly taken by Sam and Teal'c coming into view. He waited, but again, this group didn't seem terribly inclined to volunteer information, and he was about to start prodding again, when he finally got an answer.

He was surprised that it came from neither the leader nor the girl, but rather the serious-looking woman who'd been silent while vigilantly eying them the whole time. "A group of ours died here last year. We've come back to pay our respects. You said something about needing a power source?"

"Well, yeah. Though if we're in 25- whatever year, we're gonna need, um, Carter?" He turned towards their Gate expert, raising his eyebrows in question.

Carter was in some kind of daze, although he was pretty sure it was the kind where she was running a million calculations a minute through that brilliant brain of hers. "I'm – not sure, sir. Daniel's right. We should have ended up back on P3Y-922, and we didn't. From what I know about the Stargate system, sir, we shouldn't have been able to both change planets and travel in time. Not to mention that Daniel did dial Earth and yet we ended up here..."

"Uh, Sam, just a suggestion, but could it have been some kind of device back on P3Y-922? Like when I accidentally went through the quantum mirror on P3R-233?"

The blonde astrophysicist just shook her head in response to Daniel's question. "It is certainly possible that something on the planet activated to send us here, but what and how and why, I couldn't even begin to guess. Without knowing that I can't really say what we might need to get back."

Quietly listening in to the team's speculation up to this point, the one in charge made a noise of impatience and finally suggested with a slight rolling of the eyes, "Perhaps we'll just send out a message to the nearest Alliance cruiser to assist you fine folks after we've gone on -"

There was something about the way the man emphasized the word Alliance that really prickled Jack's awareness in all the wrong ways. He got the definite sense the man didn't expect it would really be doing them a favor. Jack definitely would have questioned that in his own time if River hadn't piped up to cut the man off, "Going with us."

"River?" Although apparently perfectly willing to foist them off on someone else, he sounded more resigned than as if he was actually protesting.

"Going with us. _Important._" Apparently important enough for her to turn around to face the man completely to emphasize her point. There was a short silence while the two stared each other down. The girl won.

"Apparently, you should come with us," it was said with a certain degree of sarcasm and a sort-of-smile that Jack thought was very like the kind he himself gave annoying politicians when he was required to make nice. "Don't suppose you can actually pay for passage on my ship?" He didn't sound terribly hopeful about that, either.

"Probably not, seeing as we certainly didn't mean to end up here and we don't even know what the local currency _is,_" Jack offered in a tone that was only a little sarcastic.

The big guy at the back muttered something to himself just loud enough for O'Neill to hear the last bit of it, "...as _fong luh_ as the moonbrain." It was said in a fairly disgusted tone, though it was obvious the rest of the group was used to discontented muttering from the man by the way his words were entirely ignored.

"Actually," Sam interjected, "we should just attempt to dial the Gate and return to P3Y-922. It's far more likely something on the planet caused this than any kind of flares. If you have fuel for one of the large crane motors here or would let us hook a power relay from your ship to the Gate, we can just go back through and hopefully find our way home from there."

The girl spoke again, "It won't work but you have to try. Won't believe without seeing it fail."

Well, that statement didn't bode well for their prospects of getting home, if it could be assumed the girl had any idea what she was talking about. Whether he bought it or not, this group seemed inclined to follow the girl's lead when she gave one, and if it meant that they got these people's cooperation in attempting to dial the Gate, well, they'd see when they saw.

Daniel, who had been unusually quiet up until this point, managed to find his tongue again. "I assume it was your ship that flew over here just before you arrived? We still haven't all been properly introduced. As I said before, we're a team of explorers called SG-1. I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, that's Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c. We would really appreciate it if you could help us get home."

"So you are military, then." The woman spoke up, making it a statement rather than a question.

"We all work for the United States Air Force, ma'am. Teal'c and Daniel are consultants." The focused interest on their military status only reinforced Jack's earlier impression that the two of them were former military of some stripe. Perhaps it didn't mean anything that it made them jumpy when SG-1 were apparently dealing with people so far in the future, but their obvious discomfort made him wary. The way they were armed, these people either lived in a fairly dangerous society, or they were criminals of some kind – or both.

Even though they didn't seem entirely happy with the idea of helping SG-1, it was apparently something they were going to resign themselves to at the girl's word. The one Jack had mentally designated as the leader finally took Daniel's prompt for introductions. "Well. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, and I captain the Firefly class transport ship y'all saw us fly in on. These are my crew – Zoe, my second, along with River, our pilot, and Jayne. It is never in my experience a good idea to ignore a notion o' River's, and she says you need to come with us. So I suppose you folks are welcome to try and power up your Gate thing and to come with us a while when it don't work."

Reynolds completely ignored the hulking man – whose name was apparently _Jayne_ of all things – who muttered in some great deal of irritation just loud enough to be heard, "Aw, Mal..."

Now, Jack just plain didn't like random natives telling him what to do. Although being politely directed in English was definitely a step up from being prodded with weapons and ordered in Goa'uld, no question. Still, they needed a lot more info about this future world if they did end up stuck here, and they were in a sufficiently deserted part that it was only prudent to take assistance offered to them. They didn't have a whole lot of options if Carter needed equipment they couldn't scrounge in the settlement and move by themselves to get them home, and they could surely ditch Reynolds and crew later, if necessary. Even if they would be stuck on their ship, O'Neill would bet on SG-1 over anybody else. He glanced at his fellow teammates and could see they had come to much the same conclusion, even if he thought maybe it was not perhaps for the same reasons.

Daniel took it upon himself to accept the offered assistance for all of them. "That's very kind of you. We would appreciate it very much and hope that you might tell us a little bit more about your world? We're really very far from home here."

"Yeah, well, I reckon that can wait until we're off this rock. Haven's only meant to be a short stop on our way elsewhere. _Serenity's_ parked past that edge of town – can't miss her. You got stuff to gather up, I'd imagine. We'll go and pay our respects as intended and meet back up at the ship after. You can direct us on to this Gate of yours from there. Shiny?"

Without another word, the man and his companions turned to stride off back in the direction of their ship, although the big merc still kept a bit of an eye on SG-1 as the others turned away. Jack didn't wait to watch them leave completely, even though he was half tempted to. "Well, kids, this is another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into, isn't it?"

"O'Neill, are you sure it is wise to trust this Malcolm Reynolds and his people?"

"I don't think we have any choice, T. This place has obviously been deserted for a while, and Carter can't find any other signs of civilization. It's pretty close to blind luck these folks showed up now. Besides, we have no idea how much longer it'd take to try and power the Gate ourselves and we have even less of an idea of the local situation. This little mining town didn't blow itself up."

Teal'c inclined his head. "That had occurred to me as well."

"So did anybody else find it odd that these people are familiar with Earth in the far future in another part of the galaxy, and yet they don't know what a Stargate is? In fact, didn't even seem to be aware that there was one here?"

"Daniel, I don't think there's a whole lot about this situation that _isn't_ **odd**_**. **_Maybe once they start actually answering our questions, if they ever do, we'll know why," Jack replied.

"So it wasn't just me thinking they were a little less than happy to be forthcoming with us? I mean, we've run across plenty of cultures that are wary of strangers, but they didn't seem terribly concerned by us or even our weapons, really -"

"You are incorrect, Daniel Jackson. The three adults all reacted visibly to seeing O'Neill's weaponry."

When Daniel seemed ready to protest, Jack interjected, "I saw it, too, Daniel. And was I the only one to get a completely weird vibe off of the girl and the way they all reacted to her?"

Carter began a little hesitantly, but grew more certain the longer she talked. "They didn't seem to have any advanced tech, beyond the fact they were all carrying firearms that were very Earth-like in design. Maybe more advanced, but I didn't get a good enough look to tell. The thing that bothered me, though, was to hear them talk about _Earth-That-Was_. Do you think this is some kind of remnant of evacuees from a Goa'uld attack on Earth who've gone backwards technologically? The girl did seem to know about the Goa'uld, but none of the rest of them did. She certainly didn't seem fearful, either, and they were definitely deferring to her judgment. Although whether that's some kind of cultural thing or because she's some kind of enhanced person –"

"Carter, the only thing I do know is that we're not going to get any answers staying here. Although I'm surprised you haven't told us that we shouldn't be asking questions about the future yet."

"Well, sir, I'm not sure we should be so concerned about changing things if Earth has somehow been destroyed. That's not exactly a timeline any of us would want to preserve. It's also assuming that we are in our own future, we could be in some kind of alternate universe's future – or even an alternate universe with a very different calendar. I don't think they're trying to deceive us, but I think we definitely need more information, especially if we can't dial the Stargate like they seem to think will be the case."

Even if they had been jawing away about possibilities, all their years as a team had taught them to do so while packing up efficiently, and they hadn't exactly had much gear with them in the first place, so they were ready to head out in short order.

Stepping out of the doorway of their temporary camp with a purposeful stride, Jack was only saved from being knocked down by Teal'c's quick reflexes when he came to a sudden stop. Standing there with a strange abstracted expression on her face was the girl, River. Apparently she hadn't gone off with the rest of her people. She didn't say anything. Just stood there, inspecting all of them, as if they were somehow fascinating her just by standing there.

Not quite sure what to say, or do, Jack finally just shrugged it off. She hadn't heard anything they were trying to hide, and he was definitely ready to see the back of this stretch of burned out ruins. "Well, kids, to Oz." He stepped past her and lead the way off in the direction they'd seen the ship come in to land.


	3. And All for Want of a DHD

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**Chapter Three: ... And All For Want of a DHD**

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SG-1 fell into their standard off-world positions to move out behind him as Jack O'Neill lead the way down the dusty main avenue of the burned out wreck of a mining town. He saw the girl, River, out of the corner of his eye skip up to join him at the front of the group, her dress flaring with the movements. She kept shooting him curious sideways glances, but didn't seem to actually want to say anything. He wasn't sure if she was shy or if there was something else behind it connected to the oddness of how her own people had responded to her. Nonetheless, she was practically a kid, and he always got on well with kids. He wasn't going to try and drag anything out of her if she didn't want to talk, but perhaps it would be a good idea to try and draw her out a little.

However, before he could figure out exactly what to say for a good start, Daniel took the silence so far as initiative and unsurprisingly, began asking questions. "So you pilot a transport ship? What do you transport? Aren't you a little young to be a pilot? What is this world called, anyway?"

Jack rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses at his overeager archaeologist's antics. "Breathe there, Daniel. Maybe even give her a chance to answer."

Just when a long enough stretch of time had passed that he was convinced she wasn't going to respond at all, let alone answer any of Daniel's questions, she turned her head to look at him, not Daniel. "Complicated. Long story. Simon tells it better. This was Haven."

"Uh-huh." He paused for a second and gave her an overly exaggerated look of confusion, furrowing his brow and faking a large frown, "We didn't meet a Simon, yet, right?"

She giggled at him, but didn't elaborate further. She also continued with the sidelong looks that were really starting to make him wonder what was so fascinating about him.

"Wrong frequency. What are you?"

He looked over, and expected her to be talking to Teal'c, but again, she was staring right at him. That made no sense. He didn't know what exactly she meant, but if the girl had some kind of extrasensory awareness, he figured it should be zeroing in on Teal'c and junior. Or maybe Carter, with the naquadah. It was also more than a little creepy she seemed to be answering a question he hadn't actually asked.

"Ho-kay. What?"

"Different."

Reiterating what he'd already been thinking, Jack replied, "Not me. Teal'c maybe. I'm perfectly normal, right kids?"

Daniel coughed suspiciously and the rest of his team didn't reply. Traitors.

The girl just looked frustrated. "Jaffa. Alien immune system, same brainpan. You're _different_. Can't see clearly – too much shifting and twisting and weight – **locus nostri forensis **-" She stopped suddenly and rocked back and forth unsteadily on her feet for a moment, her big eyes even more impossibly wide.

They all came to a stop around her as she wavered, ready to catch her if she actually toppled. "Uh, Jack? That was Ancient."

He shot Daniel and annoyed glance and continued hovering uncertainly around the girl. She didn't _look_ like she was actually going to keel over, but she definitely didn't look quite steady either. "River? You okay there?"

She finally turned her head to focus on the real world again, staring at him before she broke the glassy expression to blink at him repeatedly. She looked a little dazed, but then all at once seemed to come back to herself. "Sorry."

Just as suddenly as the whole episode had started, her whole demeanor changed and she seemed to forget what she had been talking about. "Almost to the ship!" she declared cheerfully, and skipped on ahead of the rest of them. Seconds later, they rounded a concealing bend in the path out of the town to come into view of said ship.

After getting this closer look, Jack revised his earlier opinion of the craft's strangeness slightly. He supposed that there was some passing resemblance between the ship and the prototype designs in the works for the x-303s – at least insomuch as the craft before them had more in common with the vessels Earth had been working on lately than it did with anything they'd seen from other space capable civilizations. It definitely didn't look like something 500 and change years advanced beyond what Earth was building now – but then these people had only said they knew of Earth, not that they were from there. It would pretty much suck if after all their efforts to save the planet, SG-1 had been sent this far into the future only to find out they'd eventually failed, but Jack didn't suppose there was much else that could be interpreted out of a phrase like _Earth-That-Was. _The thing it most looked like was a huge, ludicrous metal insect, especially with those spindly little legs.

"Firefly."

The group's attention was drawn back down from the ship they had all been looking over with various degrees of interest and skepticism to River, who was smiling brightly now and gesturing ahead. "Midbulk transport. Best ship in the 'Verse. Freedom. Home. _Serenity_." With that apparently important set of statements out of the way, she ran on ahead and disappeared up into the belly of the ship via an open onramp under the neck of the beast.

Jack O'Neill turned towards his team. These people were definitely strange, but there still didn't seem to be any other options in the offing than to go with them. Still, he couldn't help but hope maybe his geeks would have had one of their sudden epiphanies in the last few minutes to get them out of relying on these people. Jacob's beaten up old tel'taks had looked like they were in better shape than this thing, and the closer they got, the more haphazardly patchwork the craft looked. From the expression on her face, it was fascinating to Carter, though.

Still, there weren't any better offers on the table, and Reynold's people seemed like reasonable enough folk they wouldn't be flying about in a death trap. He hoped. Despite how it might look. As he brought his eyes down from looking over the whole of the craft looming above them, he realized that River must have gone inside to spread the word that they were coming, as there was now a young lady smiling at them as she walked across the inner bay of the craft towards the ramp they had come to a stop in front of. She had brown hair back in a messy bun and was dressed in some kind of grease-spotted dark overalls and a tool belt, although she also had a ridiculously bright pink and flower patterned shirt on underneath.

She looked quite pleased to see them and Jack didn't even try to contain the urge to smile back, which caused her own grin to brighten even more – which he would have predicted to be nearly impossible a moment previous.

"Hi there. I guess River must've mentioned us?"

"Sure did. Said we was takin' on some explorers. So I guess that means you folks have been to all kinds of fascinatin' places?"

"You could say that," Daniel was also giving a friendly smile to the girl. It was apparently contagious. "Did she mention that we wanted to ask your help using the ship as a power source for our Gate?"

"_Shi_, she did. Though she said it wouldn't work." The slight expression of concern for them that flashed across her sunny face and was gone was the only time the girl deviated at all from being open and cheerful. She was either exactly what she seemed or one of the best actresses they'd ever come across.

"Yes, well, be that as it may... we'd still rather try it ourselves first. I'm Jack – this is Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c," he gestured vaguely at each of them as he spoke their names. Then, he added inquisitively, "Who might you be?"

"Oh! I'm Kaylee! I'm the mechanic on _Serenity_, here." She patted the side of the ship she was standing next to fondly as she spoke.

"Well then Kaylee, I hope you won't mind taking Sam here to see your setup and helping her figure out how to attempt to power our Gate. The one that everyone keeps telling us isn't going to work," Jack said kindly.

"Sure!" Sam also smiled at the girl before she climbed the ramp to follow her deeper into the ship. It was definitely weird they all seemed so convinced the girl's prediction the gate wouldn't work must be right, but he really didn't get the feeling they were planning on making it so or plotting anything to prevent them from going back through the Gate. Still, it wasn't impossible they were attempting to keep them here for some reason – River had insisted she wanted them along, and if she was convinced of that, too, it was certainly possible they could try to orchestrate things to make it happen. He didn't figure they'd be able to pull any kind of fast one on Carter, though, so they would play nice and then act accordingly if the natives were following their own script.

In the meantime, he wasn't quite sure what to do with the rest of the team. Carter had disappeared into the ship, and there was no one else around – at least that he had noticed – to direct them. He didn't want to just go barging around Reynold's ship, as there was nothing to be gained by aggravating the man or his crew at the moment, but they were all left at something of a loss standing around near the ramp that lead into an open and mostly empty cargo bay. There was a moderate size stack of crates off to one side, but it was largely open space. Of course, not going in precluded doing much of anything other than just waiting around exactly where they were, so with a theatrical sigh, Jack took a seat on the side of the ramp.

Time passed, and he assumed Carter must be having fun, as he hadn't heard anything back from her yet other than a few distracted radio messages about engine gobbledygook that he didn't much understand. He had half expected River to reappear, but apparently she had somewhere else to be. It wasn't too terribly long, at least it was well before O'Neill had gotten bored enough to dig something out of his pack to mess with or given up and gone wandering the ship, that he heard someone approaching on a motorized vehicle from outside just as the other three people they'd already met came into view riding some kind of small hover car.

None of them seemed particularly phased to see most of SG-1 lounging there – well, Teal'c was more looming than lounging, but there was definitely no surprise. Although the big fella, Jayne, sneered at them a bit. They didn't even stop on their way into the ship, just continued up the ramp and then jumped out to start hitching the craft to some chains hanging from the ceiling apparently meant for that purpose. Although they seemed disinterested, Reynolds did pause in the task long enough to shout back towards them, "Where's your blonde friend?"

Jack took it as a cue to join them inside the cargo bay. He replied once he was close enough to talk at normal volume, "Wandered off somewhere to chat with your mechanic about power output and assorted technical ... stuff."

"Well, as I said, we got other business to be getting to, so at least one o' you folks ought to come up and direct River to your Gate thing."

With exaggerated surprise, Jack asked, "She won't know the way already?"

Reynolds eyed him for the tone, but didn't actively respond to it. "Might, might not. Ya'll seem to have rightly caught on that our River's special, but it don't always mean she's entirely consistent and reliable-like in every circumstance."

"Ah!" It wasn't like he wanted to keep hanging out in the cargo bay particularly much anyway, so he motioned to Teal'c and Daniel to stay in the area – near the known exit and the rest of the crew – and followed Reynolds through the ship, presumably towards River and the bridge. The woman he'd referred to as his second stayed in the cargo area, to keep an eye on O'Neill's people, from the look of it. On their way upward they passed what was clearly a galley area. At first he was a little surprised it was such a homey little place, though after meeting River and Kaylee, perhaps it wasn't so terribly surprising to see the cheery yellow and whimsical vines with flowers. Even if this was a cargo ship, it was also obviously a beloved home to the people living on it.

It wasn't a terribly large ship, so they soon came to the front where River was seated oddly in the pilot's chair with her bare feet pulled up onto the seat in front of her, staring off into the middle distance out the front view port. The machinery and controls of the bridge were oddly rustic-looking, in a technological sense. While it was obviously sophisticated from the displays, it also looked very much cobbled together, and quite possibly second or third hand. Even if he wasn't the team expert on any kind of technology, he did know cockpits fairly well. It was a strange contrast, though it wasn't quite as strange as the collection of little plastic dinosaur toys that sat scattered about between the instruments on the front consoles.

As Jack directed her to where the Stargate was positioned in relation to where they currently sat, he saw the truth of what Reynolds had said about the girl being inconsistent. Before, she had been definitive and seemed to know things that came as a great surprise to the rest of these people. Now, she had to wait for him to tell her where to go and seemed to be focusing very intently just on flying the ship the relatively short distance they had to cover. Which opened up a whole lot of questions, many centering around exactly how they could trust her to be the pilot. Although the fact Reynolds didn't stray away from the copilot's chair at all until they were back on the ground again kind of spoke for itself.

He made his way back down through the ship without waiting for the two of them to get up, finding Daniel and Teal'c still down in the cargo bay. The woman, Zoe, was reopening the bay doors and lowering the ramp and the big bruiser had disappeared off somewhere. Shortly after he made his way down all the rickety catwalks and stairs, Carter joined them, emerging from another part of the ship he hadn't yet seen. She was chattering away with Kaylee, presumably in scientist-speak, although they were both talking too low for him to actually make out any of the words. Which was probably just as well. The only thing he cared about was, "Carter, have you figured out how you want to try and power up the Gate?"

"Yes, sir. Kaylee and I have it worked out, we just have to.."

He held up a splayed hand to stop her from elaborating further, "Good, good! I don't need the details if you've got it all in hand. Just let the rest of us know if we need to do anything."

"I think the two of us can handle it, Colonel," she said, smiling wryly.

Jack was a little curious about why they had cables on this ship long enough to reach out to connect to the Stargate, but he wasn't really interested enough to interrupt and ask. He found a likely looking crate to perch on to wait while the gals did their thing, and Teal'c and Daniel likewise were waiting around watching – so were Zoe and Reynolds. Daniel had briefly tried to engage them in conversation, but had quickly given up when they responded in single words or not at all. River hadn't reappeared, and he wasn't sure what to make of that. Frankly, if Sam could dial the Gate and get them out of here, he didn't really care why they were all so closemouthed or what was up with the girl.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. They got the cables hooked up and called Teal'c out to attempt the manual dial, but the inner ring of the gate refused to move. Sam hypothesized it was stuck in mid-dial like the Stargate they'd encountered while he'd been brain-sucked by the Ancient repository thing. She remembered how it had been fixed, but it had to be done through the DHD, so without that device they were pretty much screwed. She suggested it might be possible, if she had a sufficiently complex computer, to rewrite a dialing program like the one used in the SGC that would be able to effect the same kind of reset. From her tone she was either somewhat doubtful it would work or she knew it would take a very long time. Either way, it definitely looked like River had been right, they were stuck going with these people.

They hadn't started to run out of supplies in the abandoned town yet, but it wouldn't have been all that much longer. If there was no way they could dial out without a DHD or some kind of Carter computer creation, they needed local information. Whether or not they could really trust these people, even false information would be more useful than what they had now. Just because these people didn't know about the Stargates didn't mean no one did, and their next best bet after Carter having a brilliant idea or locating the DHD was to hopefully find another Gate relatively nearby.

While he'd been thinking, Carter and Kaylee had already gotten all the cable and whatnot they'd been working with packed away and Zoe was moving to close the doors again. Before heading back up the stairs, Reynolds told Zoe to show them to the passenger rooms and Jack had to do a bit of a double-take at the Carter-like "Sir" in her reply. Definitely former military of some kind, oh yeah.

She was no more talkative than she had been so far, just gave them a look and started off in the direction of what was presumably the specified rooms. A short corridor later, and she was sliding open the doors to two double-bunk rooms on opposite sides for them. It wasn't exactly the lap of luxury, but SG-1 had definitely stayed in worse places than this.

"Once River and the Captain have us underway we'll have a meeting in the kitchen. If River's up to it. The girl says you're good people and wants you along, and she ain't never steered us wrong. But she ain't been too clear on the details if she knows them herself. The rest of us'd feel a might more comfortable if you didn't wander about with all the weaponry." With that said, she's back down the hall and out of sight in a matter of moments, not exactly rushing to get away from them, but definitely not wasting any time either.

It's a fairly reasonable request, as anathema it is for Jack to consider having his team in a situation out of their control and unarmed. Then again, this lot could have demanded they hand over their weapons as they were coming on board but hadn't. Perhaps if they just removed all the most obvious stuff and kept some zats hidden? Although he wouldn't put too much faith in the woman being unable to spot them let alone the mysterious River, but it was definitely less than all the weaponry.

They set their packs and the majority of their gear down in the two rooms, and Jack quietly told his team as much as he'd just decided on the armaments. Daniel was, unsurprisingly, somewhat inclined to protest, but Teal'c, as much as he could ever read anything from Teal'c's expression, seemed relieved. Carter, however, nodded in that abstracted sort of way she had when she was really too busy running equations or components through her head and only half listening to him.

"Carter? Something on your mind?"

"I'm not sure, sir."

"You're not sure if there's something on your mind?" he added jokingly, in a falsely incredulous tone.

She gave him an exasperated look that didn't entirely conceal a little bit of acknowledged humor. "I'm not sure I want to talk about it until we know a little bit more about what's going on here, Colonel. In the same way them not knowing about the Stargate was weird, the engines on this ship are not what I would have expected Earth-based technology to look like after about 500 years, but there could be any number of reasons for that. For one thing, I think you ought to know that their engineer is under the impression FTL is impossible."

That wasn't good at all. It significantly reduced their ability to get home directly or via finding another Gate near enough to access. "I guess we'll have to go to this little chat of theirs and hope that if they actually start telling us things perhaps at least something about all this will actually begin to make sense."

"So what's our plan here? We talk to these people and then what? I mean, I'm the last one to object to learning about people and cultures, but shouldn't we be concentrating on getting home?"

"But we are, Daniel. I need either a far more advanced computer than we have or a different Stargate to even begin. It's not impossible some kind of stellar phenomenon interfered with the wormhole between Earth and P3Y-922, but we routinely run several checks now for the presence of any anomalies like that and we do so because we realized the DHDs are programmed to pick them up. I think it's far more likely we activated something on the planet that did this and without getting back there, I can't begin to see how to reverse it and get us home. I might be able to come up with a rudimentary dialing program capable of resetting an in-progress outgoing dial, but it will take time and this is a more comfortable place to spend it than that town."

"Right. We talk to these people and go wherever they're headed until we figure out that we need to do something else to accomplish getting home. Anything about cultures and historical whatsits is purely incidental," O'Neill told the archaeologist, who wasn't exactly subtle about rolling his eyes.


	4. There but for the Grace

**.**

* * *

**Chapter Four: There but for the Grace of ... the Alliance?**

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A/N: There are two ways to handle canon backstory in crossovers. Since a fair number of people may only be familiar with one canon (or need a refresher), I prefer the tedious and somewhat unlikely mutual exposition scene to skimming over it entirely. That's largely what this chapter is; I've tried to make it interesting, but well, fair warning!

.

Since the ship was getting underway, SG-1 headed up to the galley where they'd been told to meet with Reynolds' crew. Everyone they'd met so far was already there, gathered in mismatched chairs around the sturdy wooden table that dominated the main space of the room. In addition to the familiar faces, there were two more people they hadn't yet encountered. While O'Neill wouldn't exactly have described Reynolds' other people as poor-looking, both of these new individuals were of an obviously more affluent class from the finer materials of their clothes, although the young man's were clearly somewhat more worn. He blamed all these years with Daniel for noticing the contrast. He didn't have too much time to dwell on it, though, before Reynolds spoke up. Unlike the crew who were all seated, the man himself was leaning on his arms over the back of the chair at the head of the table instead.

"These are Simon, our Doc, and Inara, who's a tenant in one of our shuttles." He pulled back from the chair and gestured at the two unknowns with a lazy wave of a hand.

"Howdy." Jack gave a an exaggerated wave of his own accompanied by his greeting-the-natives smile. The very attractive dark haired woman gave a composed and polite smile in return, but the Doctor's attempt held too much unease and disappeared from his face in short order.

He turned to River, then, to say, "Simon of 'Simon tells it better' fame, I presume?" She gave him a bit of a wan smile, but the girl seemed quite distracted. Not as if she didn't know what was going on, but rather as if she was having to concentrate very hard just to stay in the moment. The rest of the group seemed unperturbed by it, so he moved on. Rocking back and forth on his feet, he asked with enthusiasm, "So, story time! Who goes first?"

"Seein' as how you all are guests on my ship, I figure that ought to be you." Considering just how ridiculously closemouthed their crew had been so far, Jack was both annoyed and completely unsurprised by this. However, before he could say anything too terribly antagonistic, Kaylee jumped eagerly into the conversation.

"I sure would be interested to hear it! Even just the little bit the Cap'n and River said sounded fascinating!"

It was hard to be annoyed in the face of that much genuine enthusiasm, but he couldn't let it go entirely without saying anything. "I don't suppose there's much hope after we tell our story you will actually be forthcoming and tell us something of yours?"

Jayne – Jack still couldn't get over that name – who had been sitting at the table sharpening an overlarge knife since they'd entered the room, snorted, but didn't look up. Obviously not a guy they kept around for his conversational skills. No one else volunteered a response, with the expressions around the table ranging from stern to uncomfortable.

"Well, Daniel, you like telling it best, I think. The short version, please." There was a more comfortable-looking seating area off in a niche, and Jack sauntered over to get situated there. Daniel took one of the extra chairs at the table, but the rest of SG-1 joined him off to the side.

"Well, the easiest place to start is in Giza in 1928..."

"Daniel."

"Jaaack."

"This is the short version?" Daniel rolled his eyes. "Better settle in, folks."

He waved Daniel on, who sighed in exaggerated exasperation before continuing, "As I was saying, A dig in Egypt in 1928 uncovered a huge metal ring that we now know as the Stargate. It was claimed by the US government, who thought it might be some kind of weapon and began experimenting with it in the 1940s," Jack's lips involuntarily quirked with amusement when the big guy paused to actually give his attention at the mention of the word 'weapon'.

Daniel continued on, oblivious. "They got it to work by dialing it manually, but didn't really understand it, so it was put in mothballs until the 1990s. At that point a new group of researchers, working at a secret Air Force base, including our Samantha Carter, who is a theoretical astrophysicist and very good with computers, managed to put together a program to interact with the Gate, and they called me in to try and interpret the symbols on it. I'm an archaeologist specializing in ancient Egypt as well as a linguist."

"That means you know a lot of different languages, right?"

Daniel smiled at Kaylee. "A fair few, yes."

"Now waitaminute. What'd ya need a theor- theoretical astrophystisis-whatsit for?" It speaks, Jack thought.

"Oh, right! The Stargate system works by establishing a stable wormhole between two different Gates which can then be used to travel between those two Gates. Before anyone knew what the Stargate was, wormholes were entirely the province of theoretical astrophysics. Obviously, it's all a little less theoretical now."

"So it worked," Zoe prompted.

"Yes, right. Well, we established a connection to another world called Abydos and a military team was sent through to determine if there was any threat to Earth. Jack – Colonel Jack O'Neill was chosen to lead it, and I went along as part of the team. Once there, we discovered people from Earth living there that were enslaved by a creature pretending to be the Egyptian sun god, Ra. He was really a parasitic alien snake from a race called the Goa'uld-"

"Aliens? You expect us to believe a story with aliens in it?" Simon was incredulous, and by the expressions on the faces around the table, he wasn't alone in that.

Jack took it upon himself to make sure that point of contention was settled fairly quickly so no one got overly distracted in disbelief. "Yep. There's one here right now, in fact. Teal'c, you mind, buddy?"

Although the briefest flash of disgruntlement passed across his Jaffa friend's face, Teal'c obligingly exposed the x-shaped opening of the incubation pouch in his stomach and showed the larval Goa'uld to their hosts. There was a great deal of unhappy exclamation, quite a bit of it in what sounded like Chinese. The big lug of a man all but jumped out of his chair backwards in disgust, although it was obvious that some of Simon's interest was more curiosity than horror. Jack noticed that River only looked vaguely disgusted, seeming to lack the surprise of the others.

"The Goa'uld are parasites. The larval form incubates within their armies of enslaved Jaffa. At maturity, the parasite burrows into a human host's neck to take control of the body." Although the exclamations had stopped as Teal'c covered back up and made this pronouncement, the looks on the faces of the crew grew even more disturbed.

"Are we safe with that thing in there?" Simon warily asked.

"The larval Goa'uld I carry will not yet be mature for many years."

While none of them looked particularly reassured by this, they did go back to being slightly less worried and more grossed out. There was quite a bit of overlapping chatter that he couldn't quite get the gist of from nearly all of them – save River and the nearly-stoic Zoe – but he wasn't really in the mood to let them dwell excessively on their first encounter with aliens at the moment.

Not that he could really blame them for their distress over the whole thing, especially if they'd never heard of the Goa'uld before – and that was another oddity to add to the growing list because the snakeheads seemed to be just about everywhere in the universe as SG-1 knew it - but he wanted to get on with the story and have it finally be their turn to explain a few things. That in mind, he decided to speed things up by taking over the narrative. "Daniel got married to a local gal named Sha're, we blew up Ra on his own ship, Daniel figured out how to dial us home, and he stayed behind and buried the Gate so that the military would think Abydos was destroyed and leave the people there alone."

"I thought you were going to let me tell it?" Ahh, the inevitable Daniel pout.

"You're taking too long!"

"Jack!"

"Daniel."

Sam interjected to get them to stop, "After the first Abydos mission, we tried innumerable combinations for months to attempt to dial any other planets but none worked. With no new ideas, the Gate project was effectively shut down again and we were all reassigned."

When she paused, Daniel took the opportunity to reclaim the narrative. "At least that was the case until a year later, when Apophis, another Goa'uld pretending to be an Egyptian god, and his Jaffa came through the Stargate on Earth. Jack got recalled and had to admit Abydos was intact to stop them from attempting to bomb it again; in my curiosity I had foolishly unburied the Gate on the other side. Since they thought the Gate could only dial Abydos, they came through to look for the Goa'uld who had come to Earth. While living there, I had found a cartouche listing many other addresses, and I took Sam and Jack to see it. We realized that the dialing computer hadn't been able to connect to anywhere else because the calculations weren't accounting for stellar drift - "

As Daniel talked, Jack gauged the expressions on the faces around the table. Kaylee's was unsurprisingly rapt with the tale, though he didn't expect to to see Jayne's was similarly invested. River's had gone disaffected again, and he couldn't even be sure she was paying attention. He also honestly couldn't tell if Inara's polite interest was genuine or simply a more hospitable cover for the skepticism Reynolds, Zoe, and Simon weren't bothering to conceal. Of course, as Daniel began to drift into explaining the mechanics of the Gate, most of the expressions started to drift towards confusion and boredom, so Jack interrupted to move things along again.

"While we were investigating that, the basecamp at the Stargate was hit by the same Goa'uld we'd come looking for, and a lot of my team and the Abydonians were hurt and killed. Apophis also kidnapped Daniel's wife and her brother, so Daniel came back to the SGC with us to help look for them. It was decided by the powers that be to form teams to continue exploration through the Stargate to try and assess the threat from aliens. Since one of our people had seen the address Apophis had gone to, we attempted to follow as the first order of business. We ended up being captured when we saw that Sha're had been taken over by one of the Goa'uld and her brother ended up being chosen as a host, too."

Kaylee gasped in obvious horror, and Simon and Inara didn't look any less disturbed, although the expressions on the faces of the other four didn't change any. Perhaps they'd seen it coming from Daniel's pained expression when Sha're was mentioned, or perhaps they were just that good at hiding surprise when they weren't confronted with a Goa'uld in the face, as it were.

"At the time, Teal'c was Apophis' First Prime, that's the head of a Goa'uld's army, but he knew the Goa'uld weren't gods and helped us escape and free the other prisoners. Since then, we've been SG-1, Stargate Command's premiere team, exploring the galaxy, kicking Goa'uld ass, and trying to find technology and allies to help us out. We were just finishing up a routine mission investigating a large outpost of abandoned technology from another advanced race and were attempting to Gate home, but somehow we ended up here instead."

"That is one heck of a story," Reynolds said after it was clear that no one else was going to add anything further. Jack honestly couldn't tell from the man's expression if he believed any of it.

"So, wait, if you're claiming to be from Earth, what year was it you said you came from?" Simon asked. He, at least, was not bothering to keep the skepticism out of his tone.

"2001. We have accidentally traveled in time before, and we have accidentally ended up coming out the wrong Gate before, but never both at once. Of course, we've also ended up in alternate realities before, too, so we are really interested in whatever you can tell us about your history. If Earth was evacuated and you know about it, it seems very odd you've never heard of the Stargate and the one we came through was left abandoned in the middle of nowhere," Carter explained.

As all of this had come out of the astrophysicist's mouth very fast, it left the group of them blinking at her for a short while in its aftermath. The pause was too long for Jack, who was getting increasingly annoyed with the reticence of these people. "We showed you ours..." he drawled out.

"You mentioned that you wanted to know our history, to see if it was any different from your own?" At confirming nods from all of SG-1, Inara continued, "I hope you realize none of us are truly historians and a lot of records and data about our past were corrupted and lost during the long journey here from Earth. What does exist is sporadic and incomplete. I'm not sure where you want us to start or how much detail..." the woman trailed off, looking around at her companions to get their assistance or approval, he wasn't sure which.

"We'd appreciate an overview of what happened to Earth and how you got here, to begin with," Daniel replied, and then he was off on the subject of alternate realities and timelines. "Theoretically an alternate reality could be very close to our own – so close that we'd never be able to tell from 500 years into the future no matter how much information we had. Establishing the existence of any obvious differences you know about is the first step to figuring out exactly where we are in relation to home and determining how we might have gotten here -"

"But if it's going to depend on comparing minutia of history, that's better left for Daniel to do later with one of you or some kind of records when it won't bore the rest of us silly. Right now we just need an idea of the present situation since we seem to be stuck here," Jack finished for Daniel. He and Carter both gave him annoyed looks for it, but it was true enough!

"So you're hoping for a general idea of our distant past and a more complete description of the current state of our world?" Inara clarified.

"If you'd be so kind."

The group exchanged a few looks, perhaps deciding non-verbally exactly who should be the one to speak. Thankfully, it didn't take too much longer before Simon finally began to tell them what they wanted to know. "The story is Earth-that-Was got used up – most of the resources were depleted and there were just too many people for the planet to recover enough to support even a fraction of the population. They knew it was coming for a long time, and as it became apparent some drastic action had to be taken, the two largest remaining world powers, the United States and China came together in cooperation to try and find some solution."

"From the cooperation of their greatest scientists and their combined remaining resources they were able to theorize terraforming technologies that might work on worlds less depleted than Earth and to build many large colony ships to head out into the stars. It took some time, and a few failures, but eventually a number of ships brought our ancestors to this system. It was a very long journey - a whole generation of people never set foot on a planet."

"Now, wait. That just makes it terribly unlikely this is our reality. We have hyperdrive technology and knowledge of the Stargate system that would be incredibly useful in a relocation of Earth's people – but while we know the Goa'uld have used terraforming technologies before, we haven't gained access to any of that knowledge. I mean, some of our scientists at Area 51 have hypothesized -"

"Carter, let's just leave it at unlikely, huh?" turning back to Simon, Jack prompted, "Please, go on."

"Right. So the ships arrived here and they put the terraforming and atmosphere generating theories into practice, concentrating the most on the planets and moons closest to the center of the system. The two largest and most central, Sihnon and Londinum, were the bases for the two different powers. There were still more people than space and man-made resources, however, so people also settled on the moons and planets further out into the system, none of which were as suitable to the new technologies as the planets in the center."

"Time passed and the Core, as it came to be known, became more wealthy and environmentally rich, while the outer planets were still just barely this side of habitable in many cases. Also, the Core was very civilized, very regulated, and the outer planets - weren't. As time passed, there was conflict over the limited resources even amongst the central planets, and the two powers decided to deal with it by merging into one, calling themselves the Anglo-Sino Alliance, ruled over by a parliament and a military council. At first, they only controlled the central planets, but -"

"That wasn't enough for them," Reynolds cut in tersely. Jack kind of expected him to pick up the thread from there, as it kind of looked like this particular part of the story was a sore spot for the man since he felt the need to interrupt, but he just clenched his jaw and went silent. Meanwhile, it didn't look as if Simon wanted to pick up after that interruption and risk Reynolds wrath, so Jack got ready to prod again, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

Although she had shown almost as little prevalence for verbosity as that Jayne fellow had up to this point, Reynold's forbidding-looking second was the one to take up the thread of the story. "For a while, there was just talk. The Alliance kept going on about how it would make things better for everyone. Folk on the outer planets weren't so sure and started getting worried, and that eventually turned into mobilizing against being forced into the Alliance. The War decimated a great deal of the planets on the Border between the Core and the Rim. When it was over, we were all citizens of the Alliance."

Now they were actually explaining something of their world, it still wasn't so much what they were saying about this Alliance that bothered him as the tone in which they were saying it. Although it was obvious that Reynolds and Zoe had both fought against them in this war they'd mentioned, so perhaps they were more biased than average, it still set off a bad feeling in him.

"How long ago was this war?"

"Six years, thereabouts."

He was sure Daniel was about to ask them to go into more detail, as easily fascinated as the man always was with other cultures they came across, but it wasn't really what they needed to know right now and it was an obviously unwelcome subject, so he directed the conversation elsewhere. "Well, that answers a few questions, raises quite a few more, and leaves plenty of others completely untouched, I'd say. For instance, your pilot. There's obviously a story there."

The spaceship crew exchanged another round of glances between them. Simon's eyes lingered longest on his sister, who had been looking down and fidgeting. At being to focus of his gaze, she locked eyes on him and nodded, saying, "Everything."

At that signal, Simon began again with obvious reluctance. "River is my sister, and we grew up in the Core, children of wealthy, influential parents. My sister was a brilliant child, beyond anyone I'd ever even heard of. She was correcting my homework by the time she was three. When she was fourteen, our family was told of a government-sponsored Academy. It was supposed to be a very challenging program for gifted students and my sister begged to go."

He pauses, and it's clear from his expression and hesitance that this is not a story that's heading somewhere good. "The family heard very little from her, until I received some disturbingly incoherent letters that contained a code – the real message was 'they're hurting us – get me out'." The young man paused again, obviously distressed now. Kaylee took his hand and gave him a little smile that seemed to have a bracing effect, because he took a deep breath and was able to continue on.

"It turned out that the Academy wasn't so much a program for gifted students as an Alliance research facility that lured in exceptionally intelligent children to perform experimental brain surgery on. They were trying to turn the kids into psychics and assassins. Most of them just went mad."

Even Teal'c looked visibly taken aback by that little tidbit. What kind of government did these people have? Although, to be fair, there wasn't a whole lot he'd put past the NID and Kinsey, come to think of it. Damn them, though, for doing that to a bunch of innocent kids.

Simon swallowed back obvious anger, "I didn't know that then, though. I made connections and used my considerable financial resources to arrange for River to be smuggled out to me on Persephone in cryo. I booked passage on _Serenity_ because I thought it looked disreputable enough," he gave Kaylee a wry smile. "I don't know what might have happened otherwise, but a marshal had somehow followed us onboard and tried to arrest me. After some initial bumps in our relationship, the Captain agreed to let us stay despite our fugitive status and the hefty rewards being offered for us in exchange for my medical services."

While he'd been talking, Kaylee had let go of Simon's hand to get up and grab a cup of tea, which she now shared with Simon when he paused again. "Things were nearly normal for a while. We stayed on the ship, got in and out of trouble, and settled in. I discovered pretty quickly that my sister was – different. Random things would throw her into crazed fits, and sometimes she would spout what seemed like nonsense. Except as time passed, we realized that it wasn't all nonsense. She _knew_ things that she shouldn't. I managed to get access to a diagnostic holoimager and find the surgery scars on her brain from what they'd done and attempt a series of pharmaceutical treatments to help her deal. She still had good days and bad days, but we fell into a routine."

"I'm guessing that didn't last, if your expression is anything to go by?"

"No. They found her by placing a trigger for the subliminal programming they'd done to her in advertising sent over the public broadcasts. It made her go crazy – she beat up a whole bar full of people and though we got her back on the ship and left, they sent out an Operative after her. Essentially a very highly trained government assassin. He chased us across half the system and back. Well, when they triggered her, it brought up a memory, and the Captain decided that must be why they were so determined to retrieve her, something she knew." All the faces around the table, except for his own people, had gone tense and either sad or angry. This was obviously a painful memory for all of them, but Jack assumed the rest of the story must be important or they would have stopped telling it.

His suspicion was confirmed by how Simon seemed to have to brace himself for the next part and by the brisk way he chose to get on with the story, going on with significantly less pauses than before. "So. The short version: There had been a brief blurb in the news years before about a planet called Miranda with only a few settlers on it supposedly becoming uninhabitable due to a terraforming accident. We figured out where it was, out on the abandoned edge of the system, and discovered that it had really been the setting for an Alliance experiment in mind control and population pacification. There had been more than 30 million people living there; thanks to the drugs they put in the air processors, all but a tenth of a percent of them just stopped living – they peacefully lay down to die wherever they were. The rest, well, the rest became insane, cannibalistic monsters."

"Woah, woah, wait a minute. Monsters?" he couldn't help himself from blurting out an interjection. It wasn't that they hadn't come across a great deal of strange things in their travels around the universe, some of which could easily be termed monstrous included, but he just couldn't let it pass without further explanation. No matter how obvious it was that Simon wanted to just get on with it, he asked anyway. It was too weird they were claiming monsters when they had all balked so completely at the suggestion of aliens.

It wasn't Simon who answered, though, it was River. "G-32 Paxilon Hydroclorate. Tried to make people behave. Wanted to force people to be _better_. Affected aggressive impulses, in extremis. Reavers are all made up of rage – no room left for anything else."

Jack's attention settled on Zoe as she opened her mouth to speak. "The whole group of them took to space, running down any ship they came across or any settlements close enough. While they were raping, eating, and killing folk, the Alliance was dismissing it as campfire stories from the ignorant backwaters."

"That's pretty awful, but I'm a little more bothered by the attempted mind control and the covering up the death of an entire planet, personally," Daniel interjected, clearly trying to distance himself from the revolting nature of it all.

"Oh, I don't know. I think the part where it was all an accident is pretty disturbing," Jack added.

"Wait, nobody noticed that many people going missing? If it was just supposed to be a small colony, sure, but 30 million people..." Carter asked, obviously appalled by this whole increasingly horrifying story.

"They'd put out messages for settlers, but no one really paid any attention to just how many people had got themselves off to Miranda. A minor settlement being destroyed weren't unheard of. Even had somebody felt the itch of curiousness, it was just before the start of the Unification war. Made it easy to bury. Our pilot Wash had a friend, sort of a communication's guru, if you will. With his help, we broadcast a report from one of the scientists about what had happened to the whole 'verse. In the battle to get it done despite the Operative, we lost Wash, and Shepherd Book who'd traveled with us a spell, and Wash's friend. It was their graves we was visitin' back on Haven. Shepherd Book had taken to a mining colony on that planet when he left us. They wiped the whole place out on the supposition we might think about goin' there to hide, and they weren't the only ones to pay a high price for knowin' us," the Captain replied. He was somber, but some of his anger seemed to have drained away at the team's clear sympathy and outrage at the tale.

Simon, apparently wanting to be the one to finish it, continued on when Reynolds fell silent. "After it was all over, there was unrest just about everywhere in outrage. The Alliance has left us alone since the Operative decided to let us go, including recalling the warrants on us from the Cortex. We don't know if it's because the damage is already done, or if perhaps it's just because they've just been too busy putting out fires everywhere else."

"Turns out we aren't the only ones with quite a story to tell, then. I've got another question though. So your girl's psychic, I can see that being quite handy, but it doesn't exactly explain why she all but demanded that we come along with you. I mean, after that tale I'd say you've done us a huge favor by keeping us from stumbling blindly into your government, such as it is, by mistake, but it seemed like there was more to it than that."

"Perhaps psychic isn't quite the right description for River's abilities. Mal calls her a Reader. Sometimes she knows more than just what people around her know; even things that haven't happened yet. While she seems to have gotten better at keeping all of these thoughts from pushing her into psychosis, she has very little control over what she – for lack of a better word – hears," the fancily dressed Inara explained.

He shot a look at Carter, afraid she'd go into some kind of scientific rant about the impossibility of predicting the future, but although she scowled a bit to herself, no such exhortation was forthcoming. Likely she realized that now wasn't the time considering the chance of offending their current hosts. Whatever it was, he was certainly grateful. However, just to make sure that she wasn't simply winding up to it, he decided it would be best to distract her overly-brilliant mind with something far more relevant than the likelihood of prescient abilities being given to a teen girl through experimental brain surgery. "Okay, we've got a bare overview of the local situation. What needs to happen for you to get us home, Carter?"

"Well, sir, I've been thinking," Carter started off. He barely managed to refrain from a sarcastic reply while waiting for her to explain exactly what she had been thinking this time. It had a lot more to do with his feeling cranky about the daunting problems of the current situation than her, after all. "From what they've implied about this Alliance, I think it's safe to assume that if they knew about the Stargate at all, they'd have packed it off somewhere. I had thought maybe someone had taken the DHD since we didn't even find remnants of one on-site, but even if they had no idea what it was, I can't see the Stargate being left unguarded and abandoned."

"True enough."

"So that leaves our options at getting to another Gate, or finding some way to correct the error with this one without a DHD. Without anything remotely like FTL travel, we're limited to this system. The relative likelihood of finding another gate with a DHD in this system, even if it does seem to have quite a lot of settled planets, is – vanishingly small."

Well that was not a happy thing to hear, Jack thought, but not exactly a surprise, either. "Can you correct the error with the Gate, Carter?"

"I'm not entirely sure, sir. We spent a lot of time going over the diagrams you made of the internal components of the DHD and the instructions about how to fix this same problem. I don't think I need to write a particularly sophisticated program to reset the Gate and dial P3Y-922 if it is the exact same kind of problem we encountered then, or something very close. If the Gate has malfunctioned for some other reason, I would need something much more sophisticated than my laptop or this ship's computers to build enough of a diagnostic program to attempt a fix."

"So you're saying now that you think you can maybe fix it with what you have on hand? How long will it take?"

"I believe I may be able to do it in about a week if I can do it at all, sir. I have an additional concern, though. How likely are we to run into representatives of this Alliance? Any particularly restrictive government is not going to handle strangers without documentation – let alone Teal'c - very well."

"Well, we can't guarantee nothin, but we do our best to stay under the Alliance's radar. The Tams hid here for near on a year before the Alliance cottoned on to us. If your friend can figure a way to make your big circle work anywhere near as fast as she thinks she can, it shouldn't be a problem," the Captain said.

"Let's hope not. Though I suppose we don't have a whole lot of choice since we're already on board and headed off to ... where exactly are you folks taking us?" Jack finally thought to ask.

"We've got business waiting for us on Persephone. Trip there and back'll give your expert more than enough time to do her thing."

"Well." O'Neill clapped his hands together. "I guess we should settle in, kids. Carter, do your thing with the computer and keep me updated on how it's going." Sam nodded to him in acknowledgment, and he then turned back to Reynold's group at the table as a whole. "If our hosts would be so kind, I'd appreciate one of you agreeing to talk to Daniel and walk him through any access to historical records that you've got. It seems pretty clear your Alliance doesn't know about the Stargate or any of the technology Earth got from it now, but it _was_ a secret in our time. It's not completely impossible it was buried or forgotten somehow. If any clues about whether this is somehow the same reality exist in your records of things 500 years in the past, Daniel would be the one able to find 'em."

"The most complete records would be on the Cortex, of course -" Simon began.

"Cortex access can be monitored and recorded, so that is not a good idea until we've set down on Persephone and you won't be giving away our location." Reynolds interrupted the medic. While he would have preferred that Daniel had access to the best source of information available, he did not want to meet these Alliance people so that was reasonable enough. Although if there was no other source, that wouldn't do at all – if for no other reason than Daniel would probably drive them all crazy with questions for the next week. So not good. "Is there anything else that would be safe to use?"

Simon spoke up again, "I've got a personal encyclopedia on board. A great deal of the information sticks I brought along with me are medical in nature, but I do have a few more general ones."

"Oh, good. Daniel with nothing to do is not a pretty sight."

Daniel couldn't seem to decide whether to ignore him entirely or to pout about it instead. He pretended not to notice his archeologist's annoyance. There seemed to be something of an unspoken agreement amongst the crew, as several of them gradually wandered off in different directions. Reynolds, too, gave them one last instructive as to when the dinner hour was and strode off purposefully headed somewhere else.

His team stayed put in their seats for a little bit longer, not really having anything else to do with themselves right at the moment. Simon returned fairly promptly with his encyclopedia. He gave Daniel a brief overview of how to work the device, and then couldn't seem to decide whether to stay or go.

Daniel helped him with that decision, by asking him a few more questions, but O'Neill wasn't paying close attention anymore. In all their travels, SG-1 had never before come across any group of people who had as much of a tendency as they did to fall into extraordinary trouble. That no longer seemed to be true, from the sound of it. Jack couldn't really decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly meant that these people would know how to handle themselves if they did end up getting into some kind of further situation. Yet if the crew of _Serenity_ were just as much trouble magnets as his team, and they were all together in this one place, well, that was an unhappy thought. Coupled with River's insistence that SG-1 needed to come with them on this little jaunt between planets, it did seem likely that something was bound to happen. Not really much they could do to prepare for it though.

Sitting distracted in this cheery little kitchen could only hold its appeal so long. Daniel was still buried in the book-sized digital interface Simon had brought him, and he and said medic seemed to be in deep discussion in low tones of something Jack would no doubt be bored to tears by. While O'Neill had been lost in thought, Sam had gone back down to their quarters and retrieved her laptop. She was typing away in that fixed way she had when she was in the middle of figuring something out. His tally came up one short; he figured Teal'c had probably headed down to their new temporary quarters to kelno'reem.

Considering his apprehension something was bound to go wrong and Daniel and Carter were both doing things that were relatively important to their current situation and their prospects for getting back home, he should let them get on with it instead of bugging either one of them. He had nothing fun in his packs, and he wasn't tired yet, so that left him contemplating how to avoid his own boredom until the scheduled evening meal. One thing he did want to do was to get a better look at the cockpit of this craft. He'd flown planes and death gliders and even a tel'tak or two, but for him, flying new kinds of crafts never did get boring, and from the cursory glance he'd gotten when he was directing River to the Gate, this one was yet another wholly new construction.

That decided, he leisurely got up and made his way to the front of the ship. Both his teammates still sitting in the common area looked up at his movement before immersing themselves back in their tasks. As he came up the last set of stairs onto the bridge, he found River again sitting awkwardly perched in the pilot's chair. She was turned to the side and staring off at nothing rather than actively controlling the ship, however. No one else was present up front with her, which he was a little glad to see, as it wasn't entirely certain that he wouldn't have been shooed away if that were the case.

Reynolds and crew had accepted SG-1 coming aboard without a single argument on the girl's say-so, but by the same token that they hadn't actively objected, they were not going out of their way to be particularly friendly to the interlopers, either. Even the cheerful little mechanic had made some excuse about needing to see to the engines rather than sticking around after the necessary introductions were over and done with. That he had found a little surprising, but a decent dose of a little healthy caution never hurt anyone. He couldn't help but feel interested in learning a little more about these people. Normally, that was Daniel's shtick, but the idea of roaming through space on a ship of your own, with the family you chose surrounding you – well, it had a certain undeniable appeal.

He was drawn out of his musings about it by River turning towards the console in front of her with purposeful movements. O"Neill was easily caught up in watching her manipulate switches and displays, apparently checking both their course and the surrounding space for any other vessels voyaging out here from what he could tell. Obviously aware of his over-the-shoulder inspection of her actions, the girl began telling him what she was doing and even moved on to indicating the functions of other parts of the console. It was disturbing the couple of times she managed to answer a question he was thinking before he asked it, but otherwise it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.


	5. An Easy, Languorous Journey

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**Chapter Five: An Easy, Languorous Journey.**

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Some time later, Reynolds came up to the bridge to announce that dinner was on. Although the man hid it pretty well, the Captain was definitely surprised when he came through the hatch to find River wasn't alone. O'Neill noticed that after River had skipped off towards the kitchen, Reynolds stayed behind a moment to recheck all the indicators before turning away from the consoles. The fact that they had such an unreliable pilot made a lot more sense now that he knew the old one had been killed and they had good reason not to trust anybody who might happen to turn up for the position now.

After he was done at the console, Reynolds turned around and eyed Jack with a carefully blank expression. O'Neill half expected some kind of confrontational verbal sally about his presence on the bridge, since he definitely got the same used-to-being-in-charge vibe off Reynolds he knew he gave off himself. In the end, however, Reynolds just told him that he'd better hurry along if he didn't want Jayne to eat all the food and clattered his own way down the metal stairs exiting the bridge.

Dinner was very much like a big family affair, with the whole group chatting companionably as they passed bowls around the table. The company did its best to make up for the food itself, which frankly, needed a lot to be made up for. He'd thought MREs were bad enough, but the future had its own terrible spin on overly processed barely foods that would store easily for a long time.

There was just a smidge of lingering awkwardness from the inclusion of his people in amongst the obviously close-knit crew, but not nearly so much as he'd expected. The conversation was light and cheerful and joking, though Reynold's second never did lose her solemn face. Of course, neither did Teal'c so maybe that didn't mean anything. Dinner and jokes tapered off into an exchange of stories, Daniel doing his part for their group, telling the interested crew about some of the more comical situations SG-1 had managed to get themselves into. Jayne told some fairly ribald tales that Jack was pretty sure were mostly made up, and Reynolds and Kaylee told a few more anecdotes of adventures of the crew's. It was something of a worry that two entirely separate groups being cooped up on a vessel this size for an entire week could turn sour very fast if anyone couldn't get along. It was early yet to say it wouldn't happen, but this initial relative ease was a promising sign.

Thankfully, that impression of harmony from the initial dinner proved itself true over the next week as they journeyed to Persephone. Daniel continued to spend a lot of time with Simon, though after he found out that Inara was some kind of fancy courtesan with years of education and strict training, he also spent a fair amount of time asking her questions, too. Not that whatever she could tell him about her time at the Companion Academy would do anything towards helping them figure out if this was their reality or not, but it was Daniel, and Jack knew by now there was nothing for it but to let the archaeologist indulge his curiosity – so long as he was also spending some time on the research he was supposed to be doing. Besides, he didn't really need to take time to warn Daniel off from bugging the woman when Reynolds glaring whenever he saw the two of them talking did a fine job of that for him.

Carter worked fairly diligently on her equations at all kinds of odd hours, but she did also take some time off aside from eating and sleeping. Her new fascination during those episodes of downtime was, to absolutely no surprise of his, the ship they were on. She spent quite a lot of her free hours talking over engines and electronics with Kaylee. It seemed to make them both happy, at least, and if Carter was spending her technobabble on someone else, she wasn't directing it his way, which was all to the good. When Carter was hard at work on her calculations, he noticed that now and then River would be perched over her shoulder watching the scientist typing away. Sometimes the girl even made a suggestion, and he had to assume that she was at least not being detrimental as Carter always seemed interested by the input and occasionally stopped to discuss it with the girl. O'Neill supposed he shouldn't be surprised by that, since the kid's brother had said she was some kind of super genius or something, but he'd figured that had to be at least partially just familial boasting. Perhaps not.

As for O'Neill, he had spent more time hanging out with River on the bridge, and Teal'c had also taken to joining him when the Jaffa wasn't performing kelno'reem. He still kept expecting Reynolds to object – if this were his ship, Jack certainly would have, and he'd read the other man as being similar to him in some respects – particularly that of being a suspicious bastard. He was at the point where he was pretty sure he could fly the thing himself when the Captain finally did say something to the two of them about it. Though rather than any kind of objection to his team being on the bridge, it was more a matter-of-fact discussion on how they were both pilots; River had apparently told him. Which, Jack supposed, was why the man was making no objections. Having some kind of psychic on your crew probably cut down on a number of worries of a certain kind.

Although it didn't seem to have quite the same effect on his second, Zoe. She was never actively hostile towards any of SG-1, but she did seem to be keeping a very close watch on all of them whenever she was about. It hadn't been part of their story, but from snippets he'd overheard and the way she was acting, he'd pieced together that the pilot – the one who had died not so very long ago – had been her husband. Which explained both her reticence and greater distrust, perhaps.

The big fella named Jayne was also definitely suspicious of all of them as well. He took every opportunity to leer at Carter that presented itself, and glared at Teal'c just as much, obviously annoyed at no longer being the biggest kid on the ship. The Jaffa was his usual unruffled self and both he and Carter were able to keep from decking or otherwise harming the man ape. He thought that was pretty big of them both. It did help that several of the crew made a point of telling them it was "just Jayne" and to ignore it.

Beyond those minor trust and personality issues, the time aboard the ship passed pleasantly enough. The two different groups didn't exactly mesh into one, but there were no major blowups and they even found a few things in common. Aside from the ambiguity around their ability to go home, it was quite a bit like any other SG-1 mission which involved making peaceful contact with the natives of a new place. As they began to get closer to the time Reynolds had said they were due to arrive at their destination, O'Neill felt pretty confident about how things on the whole were going.

There was one thing that was nagging at him a bit though. He still kept expecting Carter to go into some kind of a rant about how impossible it was to predict the future because of ... quarks or magnets or something, since psychics seemed so much more superstition than science. He really didn't _want_ to be subjected to some kind of indecipherable lecture about causality, but the frustrated expressions crossing her face now and then when anyone mentioned the girl's abilities made it clear she wanted to say something. It wasn't particularly like Carter to hold back, and Jack didn't like it when his team wasn't acting in a way he could predict. So, fearing he might shortly regret the impulse, he asked her about it one night after they'd moved back to their allocated quarters after dinner.

As he expected, she tried to look less peeved than she obviously felt. "It _shouldn't_ be possible at all, sir. Yet while she's been talking to me, the girl has said things – they're right. She knows things she shouldn't and that she can't just be drawing from the minds around her, Colonel, and I have no other explanation for it. It shouldn't be possible, but I can't deny it is."

"Bugs you, huh," he smirked at her. She didn't dignify that with any verbal answer, just gave him that look of fond exasperation she seemed to reserve solely for him. They moved on to other topics and he let the subject go, satisfied that although she was bothered by the issue she wasn't getting distracted by it or going to make an issue of it.

The ship put down at a fairly seedy-looking docking area only a few days later. Seedy in that the ships surrounding _Serenity _had much the same weathered and patched appearance on the outside as she did. The people, although notably much more colorful in their garb in a few cases, also looked fairly poor. All of SG-1 came out to look around when the ship's hatch went down, to take in the bustling crowds and breathe in some fresh air after all the time cooped up in space. That was one of the better things about traveling by Stargate all four of them had started to dearly miss the last few days.

Most of the Firefly's crew took off on various errands almost as soon as the dust around the ship had settled. Daniel spared the surroundings one last longing glance before he headed back into the ship. As much as the archaeologist would clearly relish the opportunity to investigate, it was necessary he take the opportunity of being on planet to access the Cortex system that was apparently this place's version of the Internet. According to Kaylee, _Serenity_ used to freely use the resource all the time, but the crew felt too suspicious of the possibility the Alliance may be trying to track them to access certain functions like the databases anymore. At least not when they were out in space and couldn't hide their signal amongst a whole planet's worth of others. According to Carter, Kaylee had some theories as to how she could make such tracking impossible – or at least much, much harder – but she didn't have the parts for it and the crew didn't have the money at the moment to get the parts for it, either.

While the majority of the crew was off-ship, and Daniel was busy on the Cortex, Carter had decided to whip out a few of her survey gizmos from her travel pack and do some random scans of the planet where they'd landed. She'd made an announcement about completing her work on a program to unstick the gate the afternoon before, and Jack figured doing a scan on the planet was her version of a distraction and a way to feed her unending curiosity – the geek version of relaxation. That she was finished with the program had been the general gist of what she'd said, though her actual words had involved a bit of a ramble about how it might not actually work because of the crystals or the space-time something-or-other. He knew from experience that a doubtful maybe from Carter was worth ten absolute certainties from any other scientist he'd ever had to deal with, so he figured their odds were about as good as they were going to get before she attempted to actually work on the Gate.

While his scientists had their plans for the afternoon, Jack had made his own. As they'd been getting closer to planetfall, he'd almost been tempted to go along with the crew on their business, just to have an excuse to get out of the ship. Except it had been pretty apparent from what they didn't quite say that Reynold's crew did not exactly operate on the right side of the local law. Even if he'd been entirely comfortable with the criminality, from what SG-1 had learned about the Alliance as a government, it was absolutely essential they avoid any extra chance of becoming involved with it. Still, the opportunity to get off the ship was a compelling temptation. When he'd found out Kaylee was planning a trip for supplies in the market instead, that had sounded more like a reasonable risk. She'd told him that she had a few things to take care of on the ship after landing, and he chose to spend the intervening time loitering at the open hatch with its fresh scenery and not quite as fresh air thanks to various lingering ship exhaust fumes.

They'd been wearing their BDUs around the ship, but as the crew neither expected them to stay on board when they landed nor wanted them to stand out in their obvious military garb, SG-1 had gotten the loan of some mismatched clothing for their stop on Persephone. It wouldn't even be worth mentioning if the grumbling he'd expected from Jayne about it hadn't turned into a weird bonding experience between the merc and Teal'c over hats.

So Jack was standing there at the top of the ramp in ill-fitting clothes of Reynolds', looking out over the bustling crowd passing by, when Carter's gizmo made some beeping noises and she muttered something about how it was odd. Both because he was bored and because it was never a good idea to ignore anything that intrigued one of the members of his team, Jack asked for clarification. "What's odd?"

"I'm picking up a reading for a concentrated source of naquada, sir. From these numbers it has to be refined, too, and not that far away, either. Which is strange, because from everything I've learned from Kaylee about the available power sources in this time, they are entirely unaware of the existence of the stuff, and she'd never seen anything like the Stargate before, either."

She paused for a moment before looking up from her gadget to fix her gaze on him. "We have to investigate, sir. It could be a store of Goa'uld or Ancient technology and might even include another Gate, the missing DHD, or some kind of craft with interstellar capabilities if we're lucky."

He thought for a minute. "You had me at 'we have to investigate', Carter. Take Teal'c, your radios, and arm up with zats. Trace it as close as you can without drawing attention to yourselves or breaking in anywhere. Just get an idea of the overall location and situation and we'll reassess when we know more."

"Sir?"

"Even in this crowd, all four of us tromping about is likely to draw attention of the unwelcome kind. I don't trust Daniel to stay here out of trouble by himself, and as pleasant as they've been the past week, I'm not entirely sure this crew wouldn't up and leave us if we all went off somewhere."

It was only after she'd already left that he realized that if he was meant to stay here and watch Daniel, he'd actually have to stay here in the ship and watch Daniel. He was tempted to sulk a bit at that. It turned out not to matter, though. He was still lounging at the top of the ramp, watching the people go by when Carter and Teal'c returned.

"O'Neill. The building where the material resides is most heavily guarded."

Carter expanded on the Jaffa's report with a little more detail, "We couldn't even risk getting close, sir. Just looking in that direction for too long seemed to make the guards outside suspicious. They were police or military, too, sir, wearing matching uniforms."

"Well, that does sound like there's definitely something hinky going on, but it's not really our problem unless the Gate doesn't work. We're not prepared to storm a heavily guarded facility, and even if we were, anything goes wrong we'd be leading enemies right back here, which would be a poor repayment for these people taking us in."

Still, Carter looked worried. "Sir, I translated what we did on P9Q-281 to fix the DHD into an analogous computer sequence, but there's no guarantee that this Gate is shut down because of the same problem. Even with all we learned from the schematics you drew with the Ancient's knowledge, there's not much we can do to diagnose problems without a DHD or a full diagnostic system that it's beyond my ability to replicate with what we have in any reasonable time frame."

"I just can't see it being worth the risk if there's any reasonable chance to get the Gate we know about working." O'Neill understood her concerns, but he had a lot more faith in Carter's ability to get them home than she seemed to.

"What's not worth the risk?" the cheerful voice of Kaylee interjected.

Even though he'd been waiting for the little mechanic, if for no other reason than to tell her he wasn't going along on her shopping expedition, he hadn't really paid any notice to her approach from behind them, which he cursed himself internally for. He'd let himself feel too comfortable on this ship, and he was letting that keep him from staying as alert as he should be.

"Carter found some highly suspicious readings on this planet usually connected to people who are using Gate and hyperdrive technology. The signal's coming from inside a heavily guarded building, though, and we're not going to risk making trouble," he ended with, seeing as how Kaylee's expression had grown increasingly worried as he'd spoken. It didn't clear completely at that, but her brow did unfurl a bit.

"So are ya still comin' with? I need to take the mule out and pick up some foodstuffs and check the post drop off where we been getting our mail since after Miranda."

"Well, I'm in. You kids wanna come?"

"I want to take the opportunity to look up some of the more technical information on this Cortex that Kaylee's mentioned while we're here, sir."

"Teal'c?"

The big Jaffa inclined his head a degree, "I will accompany you, O'Neill."

He hadn't expected that tailing along after Kaylee would be an exercise in thrills, but Jack really had just wanted some time off the ship. It was interesting though. He was no Daniel, to go on for hours about the melding of cultures, but the markets were such an unlikely smashup of so many different places and times from cultures all over Earth that even he was aware of how curiously hodgepodge it all was. Kaylee threaded her way through the crowded streets like a pro and he and Teal'c had no trouble following – if for no other reason than no one wanted to be in Teal'c's way.

The supply run didn't actually seem to include very many necessary stops, and a couple of their pauses along the way seemed to be purely for the pleasure of ogling things Kaylee didn't actually intend to buy – a dress shop's windows, a second junkyard after she'd already made some purchases at another, and fresh fruit, of all things. The first time they'd stopped Kaylee had gotten flustered and apologized profusely for wasting their time, clearly embarrassed, but Jack and Teal'c were able to convince her that they didn't mind as they were mostly along to enjoy some time off the ship. Their last stop before heading back was at a mail depot where Kaylee picked up a small stack of things addressed to various members of the crew that she asked for help carrying back. It wasn't that the amount of items was terribly large, but there were a couple larger and a few smaller odd shaped packages that would have been awkward for her to manage by herself on top of the supplies she'd bought.

When they returned to the ship, it was to see the rest of the crew had finally come back from their business, whatever it had been, and the crates that had been in the bay since SG-1 had come aboard were now gone. Since Reynolds ran a transport business, Jack had kind of assumed they'd be bringing on some kind of cargo as a replacement, but that didn't seem to be happening.

It wasn't exactly SG-1's business, but then again it kind of was when they were relying on _Serenity _for transportation. He wouldn't have thought much about the absence of incoming cargo if he hadn't been getting nervous vibes from the crew when the subject of their business on the planet had come up previously. Sure, they'd attempted to sell the legality and steadiness of their jobs to the team as if it was a foregone conclusion they were always able to pay their way, but even if the performances of the rest of the crew had been spot-on, the attitudes of Jayne and Kaylee would have given them away. Jack was a little worried that their lack of cargo could impact his team's plans, and managed to discreetly corner the mechanic before they left the planet. His worries seemed to have been unnecessary, however, as she cheerfully told him that the crew would now be going to negotiate with a transporter on another planet and probably pick up cargo there, though they'd gotten enough from this delivery to refuel more than once.

The subject of the crew's finances had come up more than once among the members of SG-1 when they were having discussions among themselves in the evenings. It had been clear from the start the crew was not particularly well off, and there had been some discussion of attempting some kind of reimbursement for the team's stay on their ship. Taking in the four of them for at least two weeks, without any kind of promised return had to be more than a little bit of a strain on the ship's books. Okay, they had done so on the word of their psychic and therefore probably wouldn't have done otherwise, but that didn't mean that the fact they were helping SG-1 should go unacknowledged.

Unfortunately, nothing had yet suggested itself. There really wasn't much Carter could do for them gadget-wise – Kaylee was truly gifted with machines and had done pretty much all the upgrades that could be done with the parts the ship could afford. History had no value to them, so any gaps Daniel could fill in there were, even if interesting, not a tangible return – and that was still assuming the majority of their history was shared, an uncertain conclusion at best. None of them could cook worth a darn even with real food, let alone this protein crap that seemed to be the basis of the diets of spacefarers of the future. The idea of helping them out on some quasi-legal enterprise was just as out of the question. Even the thought of trying to give them something from one of SG-1's packs that they didn't need to sell off as an antique had been vetoed by Carter, who had pointed out that none of it would be able to pass muster on any kind of age verification test since it had skipped all the intervening years through a wormhole. So the conversation on the subject had gone nowhere to speak of.

Teal'c and Jack had both taken turns sitting up on the bridge over the long night shifts, but although it no doubt helped the crew get a little more sleep, they had already managed a schedule that was working well enough for them, so it wasn't really all that much of a help. O'Neill had to wonder a bit if the crew was going to just take them back to the planet they'd referred to as Haven and let them go through the Gate without having gotten anything for dragging the four of them around. It didn't seem very efficient and Reynolds and his people struck him as far more practical than that. Sure, it had been prompted by River and it was nice for SG-1 to have gotten off that vacant rock and learned a little about where they were, but it hadn't really assisted either group in any way that Jack could tell.

As the crew was sorting out the protocols for taking off from Persephone, Daniel got kicked off of the computer connection access on the bridge. Apparently his searches of the local databases had been riveting enough he'd not yet even noticed that everyone was back on board from their various excursions. Despite his clear preoccupation, he admitted that his search of the Cortex hadn't turned up anything particularly revelatory. The archaeologist did go on for quite a while about how odd it was that the records that remained from much earlier periods of history were so much more complete than the comparatively recent years of the exodus from Earth. Even if the databanks were corrupted randomly on the colonist's trip to this system, surely the historical record that they'd be most able to fill in the gaps for would have been the most recent parts of history. That didn't seem to have been the case, however, as the records became incredibly spotty around the mid 20th century and didn't really recover until decades after the settlers presumably reached this system and settled down. If this was their universe, any information about the Stargate Program or SG-1 themselves was lost somewhere in those gaps. It was strange, but no more suspicious than automatically expected from a government that accidentally killed a planet's worth of people and then covered it up. Daniel was interested in speculating what the gaps could possibly be hiding, but Jack couldn't say he was honestly all that interested.

He had pointedly not let any anxiety about their ability to get home overtake him. No matter how distant they were in space and time, he had to continue to believe that they could get back. Of course, he was lucky to have the team he did, because if there was one thing he knew for certain, it was that if a thing was even remotely possible, his team would be able to find a way to do it.

O'Neill anticipated another week-long trip back the way they'd come and then some pretty frantic finger-crossing while Carter attempted to use her laptop in lieu of a DHD or supercomputer. At least River hadn't yet made any pronouncements about how it totally wouldn't work this time. He was going to take that as a good sign. Despite the slight worry he couldn't dismiss about how she had demanded they come along on this pleasure cruse and no reason for that had yet materialized. Sure, the crew had said – and he had since observed – that the girl could be a bit flighty. Still, when she spoke, they listened, and the lack of an understandable reason for her to have wanted them along bugged him. Yep, ignoring that and taking her lack of further comment as a good sign.

As it turned out, however, it didn't really matter how he chose to take it, because _Serenity _didn't made that flight back to Haven.


	6. We'll Discuss Later

**.**

* * *

**Chapter Six: We'll Discuss Colonel O'Neill's Diplomatic Shortcomings Later**

* * *

**.**

Nothing of note happened for the first couple of days after the ship departed from the docks at Persephone. The crew and SG-1 had established fairly solid routines on the last trip, and they easily fell back into them for the expected return trip. Teal'c, who needed less time to kelno'reem than all the others needed to sleep, had taken to volunteering to watch the bridge through the latest of the late night hours. That was why his was the voice that came over the comms immediately after the sound of some kind of alarm beacon going off late one night four days out.

"O'Neill. Your presence is required."

By the time he reached the front of the ship, Reynolds and Zoe were already there, staring out the front view ports. It was an immediate indicator that something big had to be up when neither of them so much as twitched in his direction at the sound of his arrival. As he moved further onto the bridge, he saw what they were looking at and understood why they were so uncharacteristically unobservant of their surroundings. The massive ship hanging in space out in front of them was obviously the latest Asgard construction, and the little gray guys always did impressive well. It's a third over again as big as the last spanking new model SG-1 saw and all but gleaming with shiny Asgard technology.

The upgrade's not really a surprise, as the Asgard ever seem to be trying to improve their way through their ongoing war with the Replicators. What doesn't really make a whole lot of sense is why it is here now revealing itself; the _Serenity_ crew had made it very clear they were entirely unaware and unbelieving of the existence of aliens previous to their exposure to SG-1. Surely they couldn't be here just because SG-1 activated the local Gate, although considering the amount of time that had lapsed, who knew what the Asgard were up to? It wasn't like they were all that transparent and fathomable normally, even if they were Earth's best allies.

"Wonder what they're doing -" he found himself engulfed suddenly in a surge of blinding white light before he was able to finish his statement, "here." He looked around, unsurprised to find himself now on board the Asgard ship.

"Greetings, O'Neill," the words come from behind him, and Jack turned to find Thor stepping out from behind a control console. Thor being the gray guy behind the wheel is far less surprising than the appearance of the ship itself, but O'Neill is still glad to see his friend is alive and well.

"Thor! How'd you find us, buddy?"

"The Ancient dialing device on Tholassa sent you to the Gate here. Your General Hammond informed me of your disappearance when I came to Earth to ask for your assistance."

"Uh, Thor? How long ago was that?"

"I spoke to General Hammond nearly one of your Earth days ago."

Jack nodded to himself while processing that. Something was definitely hinky here, but for once it looked like it might be something in SG-1's favor. Still, he had to ask and make sure he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. "We're not in some kind of alternate future reality? How long have we been missing?"

Thor just blinked at him, large head tilting slightly in confusion. "I do not know to what you refer, O'Neill. According to General Hammond, you went missing from the planet you were exploring a month ago. I determined that the settings on the Ancient machine had sent you here, so I came here to request the assistance of SG-1."

Putting aside all the questions raised about the Alliance's civilization by Thor's explanation, Jack focused on the more urgent matter at hand. The Asgard didn't ask for help over minor issues, after all. "So what's the problem, Thor?"

"I will explain when we arrive." Thor made no further move back towards the console and didn't seem like he was going to say anything else.

"Ah, Thor? Are you going to beam over the rest of SG-1 so we can get on our way? Although maybe you should give us a moment to settle up with the crew on the other ship -" Jack began to ask, but was interrupted by the alien.

"There is no need, O'Neill. We are already underway. I am towing the vessel as we speak. Time is of the essence in this matter, I should be able to return you to your original location afterward, if you desire it so."

He was a little lost on what to say to that for a few moments, though he was sure that there were plenty of people on _Serenity _who were going to be very vocal about it shortly. "Ah. Right. Do you think maybe you could send me back over to explain?"

"I will project your image to the other ship. I cannot activate the transporter beam in hyperspace." Thor said, moving directly to the console to do just that. A few seconds later, Jack was virtually looking back around on the bridge of _Serenity_, right in time to catch the tail end of whatever objections Reynolds was shouting. He rather hoped the man hadn't been doing that the whole time he'd been gone but suspected it was possible and even likely.

"O'Neill." Teal'c's acknowledgement cut the ship's captain off mid-rant and everyone in the room turned towards the corner where Jack had reappeared. Although Jayne seemed to be missing, everyone else from the crew and the rest of SG-1 were gathered in the relatively small space.

"So, guess what, kids? It's Thor. Apparently he just spoke to General Hammond a month ago and wants our help with something so he's towing us there. He, uh, kinda didn't ask, like he does," Jack winced sympathetically and gave a _what can you do_ shrug. "I tried to explain that you folks had your own agenda, but, well, he can bring you back when he's through with us."

The rest of SG-1 looked variously surprised and confused in much the same way Jack felt as to how what Thor said fit into what they'd learned about the system and time they thought they'd landed in. Meanwhile, most of the crew's expressions were simply curious, although Zoe is as indecipherable as ever and every bit of Reynolds' expression indicates that he's right on the verge of blowing. He doesn't hold off much longer, either.

"Who in the_ tian xiao de _is Thor? It wasn't enough that we took you folks in without getting a thing in return, now you're hijacking my ship?" O'Neill was pretty sure that Reynolds would probably be threatening to shoot him or something if he was actually on the bridge with them. Well, then again, standing next to Teal'c, maybe not. Still, the man was definitely not in a happy place.

Jack raised his hands placatingly. "Look. Just calm down, Thor is going to tow you back home as soon as his errand is over. Also, I'd just like to point out that there is a plus side here for you, after all - with Thor's assistance, we can find some way to pay you folks back for helping us out."

While the irate captain is chewing that one over, Carter takes the opportunity to interject a question of her own. "Sir, how did Thor find us?"

"Funny story there, Carter. We're not 500 years in the future, or in an alternate reality. We're just on the other side of the galaxy and got here via some kind of Ancient device hooked to the Gate. No idea what's up with the calender disparity though, you and Daniel can figure it out later if you want." Carter looked taken aback for only a few seconds before he could just see the wheels whirring away behind her eyes, factoring this new information into what they had thought they knew.

"Has Thor said what he wants us for?" Daniel asked.

"Actually, no. He said he'd explain once we got there."

"And where, exactly, would this there be?" Reynolds threw in, rejoining the conversation.

"Thor didn't say that either."

Although the captain is clearly less angry now than he was, he still is clearly not pleased. Although there is just a hint of amusement behind his next question. "Does this happen to you folks often? This Thor fella drops by and drags you off without a word of explanation?"

All of SG-1 exchanged a look and Jack shrugged. "Well, yeah. Though he's come through for us in a big way before in return, so we just go with it."

"Anyway," O'Neill claps his hands together in emphasis before continuing. "I guess we'll see when we get there, I'll just let you guys," he made a circular motion in their general direction before motioning to Thor to cut off the signal. He wished that Thor had just dragged off SG-1, or at least brought Carter over when he was beaming people, because trying to make conversation with Thor, well, it left something to be desired. Granted that using hyperspace technology got you places a lot faster, but if you were still going places that were a lot farther away, it could still take quite a while. On the upside, if there was any more yelling going on over on _Serenity_ he didn't have to hear it.

The time passed as quickly as it could under those circumstances, and finally Thor spoke up after consulting his controls. "O'Neill. We are approaching the planet. We should confer with your team on the other ship." That said, Thor moved the stones to transport both of them over to _Serenity_'s bridge without pause. By this point, Teal'c and River were the only ones left in that area of the ship. At the sight of Thor, River's eyes went big and she and the alien both blinked at each other for a few moments, before Teal'c interrupted their stare-off.

"The others are awaiting your return in the commissary."

"Okey dokey, then. Thor?" He gestured towards the hatch leading back into the rest of the ship and they proceeded out of the room. Jack had made sure he was the one at the front of the line so he would have the best view of the crew's reactions to Thor. If his little alien buddy had left River taken aback, he could only imagine the hilarity of the others getting a look at him for the first time. It was something he definitely wanted to be in a position to see for himself.

As Teal'c had indicated, both the crew and his own team were all gathered around the large dining table in the galley, a few with steaming cups of tea and mostly engaged in quiet conversation that broke off when he entered the room. He stepped down the stairs and to the side quickly, followed by Teal'c, moving to where he had the best vantage of the crew's expressions. Reynolds had turned half around and was just about to speak when the all of the crew's attention snapped back to the doorway.

Their flabbergasted expressions did not disappoint. Jayne looked the most startled, mouth dropping open and jumping up from his seat, knocking the chair backward, while letting out a string of what must have been impressive profanities, if Daniel's expression was anything to go by. The others all looked slightly less freaked in varying degrees, all the way down to Zoe, whose eyes only widened expansively.

When he'd wrung every last drop of entertainment out of their surprise, Jack went ahead and made the introductions. "_Serenity_ crew, meet Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet. He's a friend of ours."

Unsurprisingly, Kaylee was the first to recover enough to respond coherently and politely. "Um, hi! Hi, Thor. I'm Kaylee."

"Greetings, Kaylee and other friends of O'Neill." There was something of an indistinguishable rumble from the rest of the crew, which was probably just as well, because Jack guessed that no one wanted to hear whatever it was that Jayne was muttering to himself. Hopefully the others would be politer, but he had enough experience with newcomers to the SGC meeting their stranger allies and saying unfortunate things to count unintelligibly as one of the better potential responses.

Deciding that those first reactions were best kept that way, Jack went ahead and asked what he figured was probably foremost on everyone's mind. "So. Thor, buddy. What is it that you need us to help you out with this time?"

"Very well. One of our most important repository outposts was overrun by Replicators before its data could be transferred to a more secure location. It contains the imprints of several of our most notable scientists and a great deal of the work that has been done to research solutions for our cloning problem. It is very important they not be lost. If the storage crystals can be retrieved before they are destroyed by the Replicators they may still be salvageable. Many technologically superior materials are available elsewhere on the planet, and we hope it will have kept the Replicators too busy to go after the storage devices."

"I'm not sure I understand. Why do you need us, Thor? Surely some of your own people were closer?" Daniel asked the question that all of SG-1 was thinking in some form or another.

"In an oversight the Asgard allowed ourselves to become too thinly spread over our own space and we are already engaging the Replicators on many other fronts. We also do not have the primitive weapons that your people are so proficient with. Once the Replicators had made it to the planet, we had no way to get to the repository without drawing further attention to it and assuring it would be swarmed."

"In that case, I really hope you picked up some equipment from the SGC, buddy. We aren't exactly equipped with enough firepower for Replicators here," Jack told the diminutive alien.

Thor's big head inclined slightly in the affirmative. "General Hammond made several suggestions when I informed him I was looking for your assistance. You will find the appropriate supplies on my vessel."

"Now, now, wait a minute. You folks feel like letting the rest of us in on what the heck a Replicator is and what we're all doing here?" Unsurprisingly, _Serenity's_ Captain felt the need to interject himself into the conversation.

Thor looked at him and the rest of his crew arrayed about, and then turned blinking, to O'Neill. "These are not members of the SGC."

"Not so much." O'Neill paused to take a breath and was planning on continuing by making a few more informative introductions, but Sam beat him to it.

"Thor, this is Captain Reynolds, who runs the ship we're on. His crew – Zoe, Jayne, River, Simon, Inara, and Kaylee, of course, who already introduced herself." She gestured to each member of the crew as she said their name. "They helped us out after we came through the Stargate and couldn't dial back home." Thor inclined his head regally towards the group as a whole. Carter then turned to Reynolds, who still looked confused and irritated about it. "Replicators are mechanical bugs that eat technology to make more of themselves. The more advanced the technology is, the more they go after it. Thor's people ran across them and they've been trying to fight them off ever since."

"They feed off advanced energy weapons, but good ol' firearms will blow 'em apart, so Thor has asked for our help dealing with them before. Problem is, where there's one, there's thousands so it gets a bit tricky," Jack added on the end of Carter's explanation.

"Mechanical bugs?" Kaylee piped up to ask.

"Nasty, malevolent, mechanical bugs. We're going to go and blow them up so Thor can retrieve his ... stuff. You guys can just wait here. Even if they leave the planet, which isn't likely, they won't even look at _Serenity_ with so much Asgard technology lying about."

"I think I liked the universe better before I knew what was out in it," Zoe said, her voice taking on a sardonic edge.

"Now, wait just one minute. If there's gonna be stuff blowin' up, maybe we want in on it. If there's payment. Is there payment?" Even the mercenary's interest was piqued by this latest development, apparently.

"I really don't know if that's such a good..." Jack started, but he was cut off before he could come up with a good enough deterrent to stifle Jayne's interest.

"What do you require?" Apparently the importance of what they were retrieving was enough for Thor to interpose himself into the decision making process. That said a lot about how desperate the guy was; normally he just told them what the problem was and let them do their thing in their own way.

"Gold is good. Or platinum. Platinum is good, too."

It was nice to know that there were things Jayne took an interest in, really, O'Neill thought sarcastically to himself. Of course, if things were as dire on the planet as Thor had implied and the man had actual skill at blowing things up – which why on Earth or anywhere else would they keep him around if he didn't? - they could probably use the help. However, there was no chance he wanted to put up with Jayne without Reynolds to boss him around. Or at least Zoe. The big guy just snarled or sneered at everyone else.

The more he thought about it, the more Jack warmed to the idea. With Replicators, more firepower was always more. "If you folks want to tag along and blow some stuff up with us, I think Thor could probably provide something reasonable."

Jack couldn't really tell what Thor was thinking, as only a few Asgard expressions were really all that distinct, but he was saved from having to ask when the alien spoke. "My ship will be able to synthesize either substance if you have a small sample on hand to use as a template. We no longer use either material ourselves."

Reynolds and his second shared a speaking look between them. Jack could tell that they'd come to some kind of a decision in the space of a couple half-expressions, but not what the decision was. He was about to ask when Thor broke in again, sounding as agitated as the little guy ever did. "If that is settled, O'Neill, are you ready? Time is of the essence."

Zoe spoke up, her voice terse and her message concise, "We're in."

With that bit of business decided, Carter started asking about the particulars. "Uh, Thor? Is there anything more you can tell us about what we're looking for and where it's located? Or if you've taken any kinds of scans to show how many Replicators are in the area?"

"Of course, Major Carter. That information is located in the computers aboard my ship whenever you are ready." Jack was pretty sure Thor was starting to get kind of impatient now from his tone.

SG-1 exchanged a glance amongst themselves. They were as ready as they were ever going to get for a planet full of Replicators, a conclusion that he could see that they had all come to more or less simultaneously. Thor seemed to sense it too, as he didn't wait for anyone to give him the go ahead before transporting them all – _Serenity_'s crew included – back over to his ship. Which lead to various exclamations from said crew. Jack ignored them in favor of opening up the crates of obvious SGC origin that Thor beamed into the room after their arrival. While he was doing that, he glanced over and noticed Thor was showing Carter some kind of schematic, presumably of the location they were going to be sent to. Teal'c was also intently listening in to that conversation, while Daniel was attempting to talk the _Serenity_ people into some semblance of calm. Either that or he was giving them an entire history of the Asgard as he understood it; with Daniel, you never knew.

It was obvious that someone at the SGC had packed up the cases for them rather than Thor having just grabbed whatever he came across as had happened in the past – which was definitely a good thing. He listened with half an ear to Reynolds loud complaints spoken over Daniel's chatter that there was no one over on his ship and the murmur of Carter's voice addressing Thor while he sorted through the contents of the crates. Although he did have to smile a little to himself at hearing Kaylee tell "Mr. Thor" that he had "such a very shiny ship."

He wasn't sure how or what Thor had asked the SGC for, but he thanked their regular practice of extensive preparation for whatever situations might arise. Clearly someone there had also recognized more was more when it came to an enemy like the Replicators and had sent plenty of extra weapons and ammo in the crates. They would easily have enough for SG-1 and however many of Reynolds people were going to tag along in the hopes of getting paid. Realizing that Carter's voice had ceased, he looked up and realized it was time to get this show on the road.

"You clear on where we're going and what we're looking for, Carter? Teal'c?"

"Yes, sir."

"Indeed, O'Neill."

"Well, kids, we've got a bunch of goodies from the SGC over here, so let's grab what we need and go exterminate some bugs. Carter, give us the highlights while we arm up."

As Thor had mentioned in his original short explanation, they were here to remove data crystals from a complex of buildings on the planet below. It was where the Asgard stored the recorded brain patterns of their brethren who weren't currently inhabiting bodies, and it had been intentionally placed a fair distance from the main city. The reason for it being so isolated was actually in anticipation of circumstances just like this. According to Thor, the small compound contained no more advanced tech than the bare minimum needed to maintain the storage units. At least by Asgard standards, anyway.

In previous cases, the Asgard had been able to take the storage units with them before they'd fled the Replicators as one of their highest priorities. Unfortunately, this planet was originally only a small research outpost that had become a temporary refuge for the irreplaceable data crystals after an evacuation triggered by the damn bugs invading elsewhere. There had only been a few Asgard on the planet, and they had not been heard from in some time and were presumed lost.

O'Neill let Carter give the details she'd gotten from Thor at her own pace, since although she did add in some unnecessary science-y minutiae she did still give them a good idea of the general layout of the complex. Besides, it wasn't like they didn't need the additional time to hand out armaments to the members of the _Serenity_ crew that had joined them over by the weapon's container. He'd expected Jayne, Zoe, and Reynolds – since he'd gotten the impression that together they constituted the fighting contingent of the crew. He was, however, surprised when River ended up in a hushed argument with her brother as she tried to join them as well. He wasn't sure if the root of his surprise was that he kept forgetting what they'd implied she was capable of because she was still a young girl in many ways, or if it was that her brother attempted to talk her out of it when it was obvious the rest of the crew deferred to her when she got an idea in her head.

He may have been a little surprised by the argument, but he wasn't at all surprised that Reynolds was the one who won it. The man had detached himself from the group around the weapons and stalked back over to where the little confrontation was taking place within a few moments of it starting. Jack didn't hear any of the words actually exchanged, but when the captain walked away, River was pouting and Simon's expression was not quite gloating.

By that point, Carter had finished up her overview of Thor's explanation and the whole group of them were fully kitted out, so he took over to wrap things up. "All right. Mostly the Replicators don't attack until you start shooting them, so try and hold off as long as possible. If they do come directly at you though, don't take any chances, they can spray acid. Also, once they've blown apart, keep an eye on the pieces. Sometimes if you don't blow the right bits they can come back together. Got it?"

Satisfied they were as prepared as they were going to get, he turned away from the assembled group to address the alien that had brought them here. "I think we're ready, Thor."

Thor took that as leave and a few seconds later they were engulfed in that familiar bright white light. When his vision cleared, O'Neill looked around to see that everything in front of them was lush greenery – really not what he expected of an Asgard planet, though he reflected that he hadn't really thought too much about what an Asgard planet might be like.

"Sir," Carter got his attention to indicate the outline of a building visible a short distance away behind him. There was no visible sign of the Replicators yet, but he hadn't exactly expected the bugs to be lurking out here in the undergrowth. Despite Thor's hopes to the contrary, the inside of the building was likely to be a different story, especially with SG-1's luck.

Carter had asked Thor if he had any way of picking up traces of the replicators and knowing how many might be at the site; unfortunately his ship's sensors weren't up to the task from orbital distance. He'd volunteered that there might have originally been sensors on the planet, but the first thing Replicators usually did was attack anything that could detect them. Even if they were somehow still there, activating any equipment in the building, or doing anything more than a rudimentary scan from Thor's ship, could easily signal their presence to the bugs. So it was safer, if not less nerve wracking, to go in blind.

As much as that sucked, standing out here wasn't getting them any closer to finding out what the situation was, so he signaled they should begin to move out. He had half expected Reynolds to at least make some token objection to to him taking charge. Although there hadn't been much reason on the ship, the two of them had already butted heads a couple of times over ordering each other's people around. At the moment, however, he seemed willing to concede that SG-1 had more of an idea what they were getting into and didn't challenge Jack giving the orders. It was just as well; an argument right now was in no one's best interest.

Carter, in consideration of the fact she had been the one directly briefed by Thor, was the one who took the lead as they headed in toward the structure. All of them were alert with eyes and ears straining for signs of the presence, past or current, of any Replicators. Of course, there wasn't really anything lying around outside of the building to attract them, so it wasn't a surprise none of them spotted anything of the kind. Thor had set them down a little under half a mile from the structure to avoid any reaction to the beaming technology. Even as they finally made their way close enough through the dense foliage that they were able to see more than just the squat, stone outline of a building, there was no obvious indication of any disturbance. From the outside, the structure looked completely intact. Once they reached the entrance to the structure and activated the door, that changed.

Although there weren't any bugs lurking just beyond the open door, there was evidence of their passing in the partially chewed walls. He knew his team would be extra alert at this sign, and he checked to make sure Reynolds' people had also noticed it. Jack wasn't sure if they'd caught the signs themselves or caught on to the additional tension of SG-1, but either way all three looked alert and cautious as they all got ready to make their way deeper into the complex.

As they went, he made a mental note to keep a bit of an extra eye on Daniel, who was looking about with a little too much bright-eyed interest for their surroundings. They hadn't really seen many things produced by the Asgard beyond a few snatches of language and their ships, and he knew the archaeologist was probably fascinated by getting to see some of their actual buildings. Granted, this was probably not the best example as it was part of a minor outpost assembled in haste and specifically outfitted with as little technology as possible, but that was hardly going to deter a man who could get excited about snatches of text on crumbling ruins. The archaeologist had gotten better about paying attention to his surroundings over the years, but he was still the most likely member of the team to get himself into trouble through inattention.

They heard the bugs well before they actually saw any of them, with that annoying scritchy noise Jack had grown to loathe faintly coming from various directions around them as they moved as quickly and stealthily through the hallways towards their target as they could manage. It was as eerie as always, especially in the context of the heavy silence only otherwise broken by their breathing and footfalls. Jack hadn't really gotten much of a sense of the mettle of Reynolds' crew before now, but he was actually fairly impressed with how easily they picked up on the noise and SG-1s reaction to it. Even Jayne was quiet and concentrated on the situation at hand, despite the tendency Jack had noticed for him to make annoying gripes at every opportunity. Despite only just being introduced to the concept of aliens, they were adapting remarkably well to the current circumstances.

The heavily armed group worked their way further into the building without seeing any Replicators until suddenly Carter led them around a corner and there a handful of them were, chewing away at the wall around some flotsam-y bit of random Asgard tech. Everyone went even further on alert as they inched their way down the corridor along the opposite wall, keeping their eyes on the bugs as they passed. One of the Replicators flexed its limbs at them, but for the most part the humans and Jaffa were ignored. Which was just as well, as if they had to fight their way both into the building and back out, well, that would put a real crimp in their day for sure. Jack was a bit afraid there would be a problem with Jayne, as the man had looked positively freaked out by his first actual sight of the bugs, but it had only taken one stern repetition of the man's name in a vehement whisper by Reynolds to get the merc to visibly take hold of himself.

Seeing this many Replicators in the place seemed like a bad sign for their mission here. Still, Thor had hoped that even if the Replicators were in the building they might have avoided the storage unit itself because it lacked any particularly attractive technology by design, so they kept moving forward. If this retrieval attempt was important enough to the guy to run off and pick them up, it was important enough to see all the way through.

The closer to their destination that they got, the more Jack thought that it might be possible the alien was right. The Replicators seemed to be mainly grouped around the automatic doors and other random doohickeys he did not know the purpose of, but there didn't seem to be all that many of them. Sure, for any single Replicator you saw, there were always a lot more, but they hadn't run across any major swarms yet. Of course, it could just mean they were all in the central part of the building or they had already mostly stripped the place and moved on elsewhere.

They may not be seeing all that many of the mechanical monsters, but letting even as many Replicators as they had spotted get between him and the way out did not at all sit well with Jack. Of course, creeping through Replicator-infested halls interminably was not his idea of a good time in any circumstance. Between the unfamiliarity of the surrounding Asgard building structure made of strange curves and indecipherable labels, the sketchy illumination of the flickering half-lights that had not yet been disabled by the bugs, and that damn mechanical scritching the hallways seemed to go on forever. Jack wasn't sure if the place was just bigger than it had looked from the outside or if his sense of time was distorting from the tense situation that could go really, epically bad any moment. He was quite relieved when Carter finally signaled that the door just down the hall from them was the one they were looking for.

There were a few holes near the door, but once they managed to get it open – Carter had to fiddle with the panel at the side a bit – there were no bugs lurking inside. There wasn't much of anything inside, as a matter of fact. Which did coincide with Thor's hope that the replicators would overlook the storage unit; apparently the Asgard had been using the exact same tech for so long in their cloning process it was much less advanced and attractive compared to the rest of their gadgets. Even when compared to the Asgard equivalent of doorknobs, apparently, which was a little mind-boggling.

Jack certainly couldn't see anything that looked remotely impressive. In fact, he wasn't even sure which of the strangely shaped protuberances from the wall their target was until Carter started fiddling with it so they could extract it and take it back with them. Most everything in the room just looked like more extensions of the sweeping supports and décor that had lined the hallways on their way in, rather than actual equipment.

The rest of SG-1 was well used to waiting for Carter to subdue some doohickey or other in the middle of hostile territory, but the crew members of _Serenity_ who had accompanied them weren't nearly so sanguine about it. Which Jack thought was a little odd, since he suspected they regularly did their own share of clandestine maneuvering – then again, he figured they weren't used to relying on outsiders. If it was one of Reynold's people they were waiting on, he'd probably be impatiently fidgeting himself. Of course, as the time started to drag and there was no visible sign of change or of any Replicators, one of them didn't limit himself to just fidgeting and looking impatient. He'd probably have been surprised if the man did manage not to make some comment.

"Well, this ain't terribly excitin'. I thought we was gonna blow them bugs up!" Teal'c was pretty much the only one of them that didn't shoot the heavily-armed man an irritated look. Jack didn't like to believe in luck or jinxes, or anything superstitious like that, but he half expected the Replicators to charge into the room after them at that very second just because.

Thankfully, it didn't happen. Carter just kept fiddling with the column that apparently contained the storage unit they had come for. It had actually been quite a while, so he decided it was about time to ask for an update. He didn't like knowing they were in the same building as a bunch of Replicators. It was at least a little better than being stuck on a ship with them, but still. He'd also noticed that sometimes getting Carter to voice the problems she was having would give her new ideas when she was truly stuck. "How's it coming there, Carter?"

She stops for a moment to glance his way before turning her attention back to the column. "I think I've almost got it, sir. The detachment mechanism is a little more complicated than Thor implied. Just a minute or two more, I think." She fiddles with something inside the structure he can't see, which suddenly causes the whole thing to light up internally while several new depressions appear on its surface. Unfortunately, Carter's response is not to look pleased, her face instead twisting into a slight grimace and frustrated lines appear across her brow. After a moment's thought, she's reaching back in to dig around inside the console with renewed vigor. Jack turns his attention back to surveying the rest of the team while she continues to work.

As Jack watched, Jayne sniffed and looked back away from them towards the open doorway, and readjusted his grip on the gun he was holding. Daniel was wandering about the room, trying to see if there was anything else interesting to be seen here. He paused now and then at spans of wall that looked just like the rest to Jack, but didn't stop and focus on anything, so he couldn't be having much luck. Teal'c, Reynolds, and Zoe were all watching the doorway, waiting, although Reynolds was also keeping an eye on both Jayne and Carter's progress.

Jack had started to entertain the hope they wouldn't have to actually fight the Replicators at all on this particular venture, but he should have known better. Quite possibly it was because of whatever Carter had just accidentally activated, or perhaps the bugs had just finally been aggravated by their presence. Either way, Jack had just started to realize that the Replicator noises they had been hearing distantly and intermittently the whole time they had been here were getting louder when a whole group of them came charging at the open doorway. He's already blowing one of the things that's come flying towards Zoe's face into pieces when he realizes he's not going to get his wish.

The sudden advance had been so fast that particular bug was one of the first Replicators to be disintegrated, but it was only a few seconds before everyone but Carter was blasting away as fast as they could manage. Between the six of them and the small doorway, they were keeping ahead of the tide at the moment, but Jack didn't hold much hope they could manage it for long. Considering that the bugs were all linked together and could clearly chew through the walls...

Yeah, they need to get out of here, so he yells over the sound of the gunfire, "Carter! Any time now would be great!"

"I'm working on it, sir!" She sounded quite anxious and a bit annoyed with him, but he couldn't help checking. He couldn't actually see what she was doing back there, too focused on making sure none of the Replicators actually got close enough to any of them to do any damage.

"Just had to say somethin' didn't you? No wonder we never have a nice, easy job!"

"Hey, now, Mal! It ain't my fault!" the big man whined.

Jack tried to ignore the back and forth as it continued while concentrating on the Replicators. Thor had given them a crystal to affect a beam out if it became necessary, but he hadn't been completely sure that it would work. The Replicators were constantly trying to improve themselves, and the last transmissions they'd had from a planet wiped out implied that the bugs had found some way to interfere with the beaming technology when they were in close proximity to it. If that were the case, it was going to be a long, long journey back out of this place. For all that there hadn't seemed to be too many bugs on the way in, there certainly seems to be an unending tide of them now.

Over the continual and almost deafening sound of all the gunfire, he finally heard Carter exclaim, "Got it!" in triumph. He avoided the temptation to turn and look, since he knew without asking that now she would grab the necessary bits they'd come here for and attempt to beam them all out.

"O'Neill!" Jack turned to see that Teal'c was indicating that the Replicators had started coming through one of the side walls now. He swore internally as the bugs continued to pour in and hoped Carter was just taking her own sweet time getting the storage crystals out of the device for some esoteric reason rather than that she'd tried to beam them out already and was having no luck.

"Carter! Can we go?"

He was incredibly relieved when the response he got wasn't verbal, but a very familiar engulfing white light.


	7. (Not) Like a Low-down Dirty Deceiver

**.**

* * *

**Chapter Seven: (Not) Like a Low-down Dirty Deceiver**

* * *

.

When his vision finally cleared, O'Neill saw they were back on the sleek bridge of Thor's ship with the alien and Kaylee. Glancing around, he assumed that the remainder of the _Serenity_ crew had been sent back to their own ship, as they weren't anywhere to be seen. He took stock of the team again, just to make sure that there were no injuries he hadn't yet noticed. Everyone looked to be fine, so far as he could tell, and they were mostly engaged in doing their own visual checks or heading for the weapon crates still open on the floor. Except Carter, who was moving the cylinder that contained the crystals they'd been sent to retrieve at Thor's direction while the alien was busy at the consoles, presumably getting them the heck out of dodge. He didn't know much about how Replicators got around when they weren't hijacking the ships of more advanced races, and he didn't want to find out now from them being followed off the planet.

"You folks do that a lot?" Reynolds asked, in a tone that attempted but didn't quite reach casual.

"Not any more often than we have to," Jack drawled.

"Better than Reavers. Should pay better, too, the little guy ain't lyin," Jayne said with obvious excitement. Now that they were out of the situation and he'd gotten to blow things up, the merc was obviously enjoying himself.

"Those were the crazy space cannibals, right? Yeah, we don't want to meet them, the Goa'uld and Replicators are more than enough fun for us." Jack replied absently. Carter seemed to have finally got the crystals stored away and had joined them in putting away all their weapons and gear from the run. Kaylee had come over, too, and was jabbering away in a technobabble-y haze the like of which even Carter couldn't have beat about how shiny Mr. Thor's ship was and how he'd let her look around. He actually found it kind of cute, especially since it wasn't really directed at him.

"Crew of _Serenity_, I have some of the materials you requested. Engineer Kaylee assisted me in determining appropriate amounts to synthesize." Thor moved one of the control crystals and a moderately sized pile of metals materialized nearby. "Unfortunately, I have received a message from the fleet that my assistance is required elsewhere immediately. I must not delay and your system is not in a direct path, so I will have to transport all of you to the SGC and return later to transport your ship back to its original location. Would you prefer to spend the journey to Earth on your own conveyance?"

O'Neill went ahead and answered for the group before Reynolds could object. "Yeah, Thor. We probably need to have a bit of a discussion before we get back near Earth." As usual, Thor wasted no time on pleasantries before sending the whole group of them back over to _Serenity's_ cargo bay.

"Okay, campers, I think we'd better get all of our stuff packed up," O'Neill directed to the rest of his team, while half-waiting for the interjection he was sure was coming, if he was reading the ship captain's expressions right. The angrily furled brow and tightly clenched mouth were pretty clear indications Reynolds was not pleased.

"Now wait just one minute! That was not the deal!" O'Neill privately found it amusing that Reynolds had turned to yell at him as soon as Thor was no longer a factor, since none of the _Serenity_ crew aside from Kaylee seemed quite prepared to deal with the alien directly. Not that Jack wouldn't be tempted to shortly start doing some yelling of his own if the man didn't calm the heck down.

"Now, correct me if I'm misstating things here, but haven't you folks been talking quite a bit about your lack of work lately and the fact that you didn't have any concrete jobs lined up after the one you just finished on Persephone? Thor's always been as good as his word to us, he'll get you back home. In the meantime, we'll put you up for a while. That's only fair of us to do in return for you folks doing the same for us."

As he so often did, SG-1's archaeologist had declined to follow his directive to go pack up and felt the need to interject and derail the exchange. "Er, Jack? Is it really such a good idea to bring them back with us? Their ship has no cloaking technology and even if we did somehow manage to get it down to Earth with us without someone spotting it, and find somewhere they could leave it undisturbed in the meantime, well, the NID..."

"You have a better idea, Daniel?"

"Oh, c'mon, Jack. You know I'm right."

"I didn't say you weren't, Daniel, I asked if you had a better idea. If Thor says he's got places to be, they're stuck with us until he's free again. You expect them all to sit on their ship out of radar range for however long that takes while we mosey down to the SGC?"

"Well, no, but Jack! We do owe these people and it's our fault they've been dragged here. Who knows what the NID might try?" Daniel was definitely stuck on the subject, and Jack wasn't entirely sure how to get him off of it. He hated to admit it, but Daniel brought up a good point. Even if they didn't have space ship engines anything like the Goa'uld or their other allies, it was still a more advanced and different design than anything that had been developed on Earth without alien crafts for reference. If nothing else, the experience with the Tollan had taught them there were plenty of factions of the government that didn't feel alien visitors had any rights if they could profit from them somehow.

Thankfully, Thor, or at least Thor's disembodied voice, intervened. "If you wish, I could beam all of you to the planet's surface after you chose a location to conceal the ship."

The _Serenity _crew had been listening in on the conversation with expressions ranging from Kaylee's eager anticipation to the Captain's continued anger. However at the interruption, they all looked comically disconcerted by Thor's voice coming out of nowhere. Reynolds, however, wasn't the kind of man to let that get in the way of his continuing an argument. "Just hold on here! Don't we get any say in this?"

"Aw, c'mon, Captain! We have a chance to go see Earth! It'd be fun!" Kaylee looked on the verge of pouting.

"Kaylee, that ain't..."

Jack isn't sure from the faintly helpless look on Reynolds' face if the man has so many objections that he can't decide which to voice first or if he just objects on principle and can't figure out how to justify it. Either way, O'Neill needs the man to start getting with the program, so he gives the group a rundown of their options and the surrounding circumstances. "The Stargate and the existence of life outside of Earth are top secret, so we can't just let you loiter around in your ship where you might be spotted. I'd like to say we could guarantee that no one would cause any trouble if we had you land your ship in a remote, secure area at night, but it's just not true. General Hammond is a great guy, but some of the people who can get access to his reports are less friendly."

He pauses to let that sink in fully before continuing on, "If you've got enough supplies, I imagine you could hang out on your ship in a hidden orbit behind one of the outer planets, but while Thor is reliable he's not always punctual."

"So are you sayin' you want us to come along, or not? I ain't entirely clear on anything other than your little gray friend seems to be stranding us. Which I recon goes somewhat against what I recall you promising after us going out of our way to help you out. Twice."

"Hey, hey! Thor just reimbursed you, and we didn't force you to take us along. Don't get me wrong, we do appreciate it, but we're not keeping you away from any pressing issues back home, and we're perfectly willing to return the favor of putting you up after what you did for us until Thor can return. We just have to be a little cautious."

"That is not any manner of reassuring," Reynolds replies with a wry twist to his mouth.

Jack shrugged, because he hadn't really meant for it to be, and went to join Carter and Teal'c in packing up, leaving the crew of the spaceship behind him, discussing amongst themselves.

It was perhaps an hour or so later when they were all gathered back together again. SG-1 had their packs, and the _Serenity _crew were still all clustered together, discussing what they wanted to do intermittently. Apparently they hadn't been able to come to any kind of complete consensus in the intervening time, although it did look like most or all of them had left for at least long enough to pack a few things if the new grouping of duffels and parcels on the cargo bay floor off to one side was any indication. It wasn't too much longer before they were all interrupted.

"We are approaching your planet, O'Neill. You must make a decision. The message I received was urgent; I cannot linger."

Jack turned to Reynolds. "You can stay on your ship and park it out at the edge of the system where no one will see it. Or you can come down to the base with us. Go through the medical check, have a chat with Hammond, agree to behave, do a little sightseeing in Colorado while we wait for Thor. Just so you know, the weapons have to stay here. Won't go over well on a military base, I'm sure you realize. Up to you folks which one you choose, but Thor will definitely get you home eventually either way."

Reynolds scanned the faces of his people – most of them were visibly eager, Kaylee almost bouncing. Even Jayne looked as interested as he'd been in anything so far that didn't include blowing things up.

In the end, it was the elaborately dressed Inara who spoke up, "It would be nice for all of us to have a little time off the ship, Mal. We wouldn't have to worry about avoiding the Alliance here, either."

The man was obviously listening to her, but when she finished speaking he didn't respond immediately, turning to look at River instead. Which Jack supposed given everything else that had happened so far shouldn't have been any kind of a surprise. However, any confirmation he was looking for from that quarter wasn't forthcoming; the girl seemed to be at best peripherally aware of the conversation going on while she stared in fascination at nothing the rest of them could see.

O'Neill coughed and gave the man a significant look.

Reynolds rolled his eyes at the eager faces surrounding him. "All right. What are you gonna have him do with my ship?"

"Thor?"

"I will take care of concealing the ship. We are within beaming range, O'Neill. I will send you down to the SGC and return when I can."

When the white light cleared, they were all standing in the briefing room at the SGC. SG-3 was gathered around the table in the middle of a briefing with General Hammond when they interrupted. For all that they had been missing for a while – though not nearly as long as they'd originally thought – and that there could have been no way for anyone to know SG-1 was going to appear, none of the people in the room looked entirely surprised to see the team beam into their midst. That's what came from having a few too many spectacular saves, Jack supposed, people stopped getting excited.

Although there was a definite curiosity directed at their appearance in company. Hammond stood and came around the table to greet them properly. "Colonel O'Neill, SG-1. Glad to have you home. I see you've brought guests, Colonel. Who are these people?"

"Well, General, it's a bit of a long story. At the moment, let's just say they're some people who helped us and Thor out. The rest can wait for the debriefing."

"Very well, SG-1, you and your guests should head down to the infirmary. I'll see you back here after you and SG-3 are finished, this is a story I think I'd better hear as soon as possible. Unless you need rest first?"

"That won't be necessary, sir." Jack turned to the _Serenity _crew and gestured elaborately, "Follow us."

A number of personnel gave the members of SG-1 friendly waves as they made their way to the infirmary. Kaylee made an insufficiently hushed exclamation about thinking that seeing Earth would be more exciting. It was obvious she was disappointed the place they'd been beamed to was made up of dull gray corridors, but the rest of her crew were feeling less let down and more obviously apprehensive. The prolific disbursement of SFs along their route and the tagalongs behind them from the briefing room were definitely making certain of their companions visibly nervous, despite how hard they were trying not to let that show.

O'Neill couldn't really blame them, given what he knew about their situation back in their own world, but he didn't really think there was anything he could do or say to reassure them, either. While General Hammond was perfectly willing to treat them as guests and give them a certain amount of freedom of the base on SG-1's say so, new visitors were always under observation for good reason. He hoped that the situation wouldn't devolve into some kind of a problem.

The standard procedure in the infirmary went quickly, if not quietly, since Jack couldn't let Dr. Fraiser get through a single one without _any_ complaints about the needles. The crew from _Serenity_ was cooperative enough, aside from a brief hiccup with River where Simon had to intervene. Since the ship's doctor had already been quite interested and inquisitive about their standard procedures already, the incident had barely registered before it was already taken care of. Exaggerated histrionics and teenagers who didn't like doctors they weren't related to aside, it was not too much longer before they were back in the briefing room, taking seats around the table with Hammond.

It took a while to get through everything that had happened, even in brief. SG-1 went through a very general overview of their original mission to P3Y-922, how it had ended with dialing Earth and stepping through somewhere else entirely, wandering the deserted unknown planet hoping to find something to power the DHD-less Stargate, the happy luck of the _Serenity _crew finding them, and the weird time discrepancy. The tale finished up with the equally weird naquadah readings they'd found on Persephone and the horror story about a planet named Miranda, followed immediately by Thor's timely arrival and their latest adventure with Replicators.

When the retelling was finished, General Hammond leaned back from the table with an inscrutable expression. "Any idea what Thor was called back for, or how long we'll have our guests here?"

"No, sir. Thor wasn't any more inclined toward explanation than usual."

"All right, SG-1 – and guests – stay on the base for the evening, let's make sure all the tests from the infirmary come through clear. After that we can talk about conditions for leaving the base. For now, get these people settled in the VIP quarters. Dismissed."

As soon as Hammond dismissed them and left the room, Reynolds turned to him. "We're where now?"

"Stargate Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We're just about 28 levels under Cheyenne Mountain at the moment."

"On Earth. We're really, truly on Earth-That-Was?" Inara asked, seeming not exactly disbelieving but nevertheless still needing some additional confirmation.

"Well, we never did figure out where your people got their wires crossed on that part, but here it is, just like we left it," Jack replied, spreading his hands to indicate the admittedly unimpressive walls of the briefing room.

Kaylee was about to ask a question of her own, but she was interrupted by the sights and sounds of the klaxons and "Unauthorized Offworld Activation" alert going off, along with the Stargate activating. The sudden flurry of activity, accompanied by all of SG-1 heading directly to the stairs down to the control room had all of the _Serenity _crew looking alarmed.

"Don't worry, folks. This happens all the time here. You guys just ... stay here. We've gotta," he gestured back over his shoulder to the stairs leading down into the control room, where the rest of SG-1 were already disappearing. He left them staring through the window into the adjoining Gate room in undisguised interest, although the distrust and desire to protest were also clear on their captain's face.

The colonel made his way down the stairs just in time to hear the gate technician on duty declare that they were receiving SG-7's IDC code. Hammond, who had already been down in the control room checking up on something, gave the order to open the iris. Considering that their arrival was obviously not expected at this particular time, it was not so terribly surprising that the team came hurling through the gate under fire from staff blasts.

It was a tense couple of minutes waiting for the whole team to make it through, though once it was over and the Gate shut down, all four members of the team seemed to be relatively unharmed. They'd learned way back near the beginning of the program not to leave anything too critical in the Gate room or risk it being blown up. Hammond's questions to the team leader returned a reply about a stray Jaffa patrol on their supposedly deserted destination for a follow-up botanical collection task.

All of SG-1 had developed the habit of racing directly to the control room whenever anything unexpected happened without even thinking about it, but thankfully, it wasn't every time that their various fields of expertise were needed. This clearly looked to be one of those times, so Jack turned to go back upstairs and deal with getting their guests squared away in quarters for the evening and perhaps taking them for a trip to the mess hall. He was certainly looking forward to that himself. Whatever the Alliance system might have developed otherwise in terms of technology, their cuisine left a lot to be desired.

He'd half expected to find one or more of the crew had followed SG-1 down from the briefing room above, once the excitement was over and he'd had a moment to think about it, but that wasn't the case. Returning to the conference room, he found all seven of them deep in a hushed conversation in front of the large window looking down into the room below containing the Stargate. They broke off quite blatantly upon spotting his approach.

"So you folks get your fancy bunker shot up a lot, you say?"

Jack returned an ironic smirk that was well matched to the one Reynolds was giving him. "Far more often than we'd like. The alarms go off every time anyone dials in at a time that's not prearranged. So it can be an attack, or just an ally wanting to chat, or even some scientist that sprained an ankle on one of the offworld sites. They'll probably go off a few more times when you're here, so you shouldn't worry."

"Then precisely when should we worry, do you think?" He'd gotten the idea from the crew's interactions with each other that their doctor, Simon, was more than willing to be confrontational, but so far, that had mostly been directed at their captain. The young man had addressed Jack only a bare handful of times since they'd met before now, and never in quite such a confrontational tone.

"Oh, if there's a call to evacuate the base, or the self-destruct countdown gets started up. That's definite cause for worry, but it doesn't happen very often," Jack answered, mostly seriously. "Not that you could do anything about it, but it would be cause to assume things are a little more fubar than usual. What's say we get you folks set up with some quarters and then take a stroll down to the mess?"

He showed all of them to their rooms personally. It was normally something that would have been delegated out, but all he had waiting for him to do was paperwork, and he felt he needed to catch an extra word with Reynolds before too much longer. Considering that Jack was certain the crew were criminals back in their own world, and they had told him explicitly they'd had very bad experiences with agents of their own government, it wasn't surprising that the visible presence of so much authority with a capital A was putting them on edge. However, it would not do for them to do anything that would compromise the safety and secrecy of the Stargate program because they got too antsy about their place here.

With that intention in mind, he left the captain until last, and followed the man into the room. He wasn't really surprised to find that Reynolds seemed to have been expecting it. "You have something you wanna say to me?"

"Yeah. Look. I get that your people aren't entirely comfortable with being confined and shadowed by SFs in a secure, government base after all you've been through. I sympathize, really, but the people on this base are responsible for protecting this world from extraterrestrial threats of any kind. And keeping the fact that such threats even exist secret. I need your assurance you and your people aren't going to start acting out."

"What exactly do you figure we could manage to do in this remarkably prison-like installation o' yours?"

"Well, I figure I don't want to find out. Aside from which, I also meant it when I promised we'd let you go topside and do some sightseeing. We do get a few refugees and visitors through here every now and then. There are just procedures that have to be followed first. It'll help that you're all completely human and from a society sufficiently advanced to not find technology scary."

It wasn't enough to get the man to back down from his belligerent stance, but then, Jack hadn't really expected it to be. "I don't suppose you have any better idea on how long these procedures of yours'll take than you do about when your little alien friend as hijacked my ship will be back?"

"Unless there's some kind of problem with the results of all those infirmary tests or with your people causing any kind of trouble, no more than a couple days, tops. You'll have to continue to live on base, and have an escort with you, but that's, as I said, standard procedure."

"That all, then?"

"Yep," Jack replied, popping the p sound at the end of the word excessively, before turning and leaving. He really didn't know if the conversation had made things better or possibly worse, but he couldn't think of anything that would make any more of a difference, either. He wouldn't go quite so far as to say he and Reynolds were similar, but he did have to admit, at least in his own head, that they had some things in common. If it was his team, he'd be no happier about being stranded out of their own control and told to just sit back and wait. Still, he had felt it necessary to try and convince the man to keep his people in line. Jack really hoped that whatever Thor had been called away for wouldn't take too long.

It did take a couple of days extra to get all the appropriate clearances to take Reynold's people out of the mountain. They didn't allow refugees or visitors out quite so often that the procedure was standardized, even if it did happen now and again. Thankfully, having the run of the base seemed to be sufficient appeasement for most of them for that limited of an interval, even with the guards, for as long as it took to get things all sorted. The crew unanimously exclaimed fondly over the food in the cafeteria, and Kaylee and River spent a fair amount of time hanging out with Sam in her lab on 19 while she looked over various technologies. In a similar vein, when Simon wasn't checking up on his sister there, he spent a fair amount of time swapping tales of the Alliance's advanced medical tech for those of having to deal with the craziness of off-world illnesses and traumas with Dr. Fraiser in the infirmary. Jayne, meanwhile, spent the largest part of his time haunting the gym, and when he had could convince authorized company to escort him, the firing range.

Unlike their counterparts, Reynolds and his second did not seem to spend any time exploring interests on their own but split their time between keeping an eye on all the others. While part of him recognized their patience might last longer if they were amusing themselves, rather than keeping watch, he was glad that Reynolds seemed to have decided to keep a close eye on his people. He mainly figured out Inara had been attempting to learn more about the cultures of Earth and the worlds they had visited when he realized that Reynolds was spending more time haunting the corridors of level 18 outside Daniel's office than anywhere else. It wasn't entirely clear what the relationship between the two of them was, other than seeming to spend an inordinate amount of time irritating each other. Which did tend to lead one to assume certain things, but then again, the same could be said of his relationship with Daniel, so who knew.

Thankfully their interest in these various pursuits was still keeping them entertained when General Hammond finally gave the okay for them to see some of the world outside of the base, though he did add the expected caveats about staying on base overnight and being escorted, and he specifically ordered that SG-1 be the ones on babysitting duty. That wasn't too much of a surprise, since they were still mostly spending time together. General Hammond hadn't been quite as intrigued by the mysterious origins and date discrepancy the Alliance system presented as Carter and Daniel were, but he'd been curious. SG-1 was due for a bit of time on-world anyway, but since Daniel and Carter were here, part of their allowing River, Kaylee, and Inara into their labs was an attempt to see if they could find any more clues as to exactly when the founders of the Alliance's system had left Earth and why.

Definitive answers would probably be impossible to find, but Daniel had come up with something of a theory, although it didn't sit too terribly well with Jack. The archaeologist had spent a fair amount of time looking at what was available so far as the historic records of the Alliance before Thor had come along to find them. As he'd been doing so, he'd found it puzzling that there was so much history available from before the late 1900s and after the supposed exodus from Earth in the mid-2080s. Yet the period in the middle was almost entirely blank in the available records. Thinking back over it now and reviewing over the notes he'd made, Daniel had become convinced that it was probably a deliberate omission.

At the time, the pattern hadn't seemed notably significant because they had been sure they were in a distant future. SG-1 had previously encountered civilizations with histories containing similar gaps in their pasts from lost and destroyed records. It was also, however, the sort of gap they sometimes found in the history of people transplanted by a Goa'uld. It wasn't a happy possibility, and it brought up even more questions than it potentially answered, but they knew there had been Goa'uld raids on Earth in times well after the Gate had been buried and before it had been dug up. There was that Christian village under Sokar's control that tried to drown Teal'c, for instance.

Of course Daniel might be wrong; it didn't really make much sense as a Goa'uld scheme. They were all about taking people for hosts and worshipers, not letting them run about and create their own technologically advanced societies in what they thought was hundreds of years into their future. Still, someone had moved these people off Earth, and it was long ago enough that they'd all bought into a fake timeline and risen to such a high population level. Yet it had been recent enough they knew details of nearly-contemporary Earth history, and there was that puzzle of the naquadah readings on Persephone. The archaeologist and Sam both were trying to come up with possible explanations and alternate theories, but nothing they could think of made the whole situation make sense.

It was only incidentally of interest to Jack, and he figured it would probably be a good thing to finally give them a reason to get out of the mountain before any of them managed to get too frustrated with not finding any definitive answers. As soon as the new permissions were granted, Jack moseyed down to Carter's lab first, where he found Zoe lurking around the doorway as River was looking at something on Carter's computer. The Major herself and Kaylee were poking at some doohickey on the lab table.

"I have just been to see General Hammond," he said as he walked into the room, and gained everyone's attention. Zoe followed in behind him to better hear what he had come to say.

"Was it about these guys getting permission to go off base?" Carter asked, brightly smiling.

"As a matter of fact, it was," he answered, feigning surprise. "So where do you think we should take them first? Personally, I'm leaning towards steaks at O'Malley's, since they lifted our ban. Maybe have a barbecue on the weekend."

"Really?" Despite her immersion in whatever they'd been doing just a moment before, Kaylee was immediately perked up by the suggestion of getting to see the surface.

"Yeahsureyabetcha." He smiled at the cheery mechanic.

Unlike Kaylee, who was nearly vibrating with enthusiasm, and River, who had given a happy smile as well, Zoe's expression hadn't changed. "You tell the captain yet?"

"Nope. Came to tell you ladies first off. Your captain's probably lurking outside Daniel's office again, that's my next stop. I figured I'd let one of you have the pleasure of tracking down that Jayne fellow in the meantime."

"Thanks," Zoe replied, her tone positively arid. Still, it was accompanied by a twitch of the lips that was almost a smile, maybe.

It wasn't that much later the whole group had assembled at the elevators, ready to go topside. To the visible annoyance of the captain and Jayne, Jack had once again reiterated that they had to stay with SG-1 and should try to blend in as much as possible, and to definitely not say anything to reveal the existence of the Stargate. They split into groups to avoid crowding the elevators excessively, and Jack had made a point to be in Kaylee's group. After seeing the barrenness of the planets _Serenity_ had stopped on during their brief time on board, he really wanted to see her face when she got her first glimpse of Earth outside the mountain.

The way her whole expression lit up brightly at the sight of Colorado was definitely worth it. Hers wasn't the only excited expression, though he figured at least some of it was from the lot of them being cooped up on the base for several days now. He definitely got the same feeling after he'd been down there too long without getting out on this world or some other, even if he wasn't nearly so expressive about it.

Jack's original suggestion of a visit to O'Malley's was generally agreed to be a good place to start, since the crew had been so impressed by the cafeteria food. It took a couple vehicles to get them all there, and it took an extra little while to coax Kaylee to get into the car rather than attempting to get a closer look under its hood at the engine, but soon enough they were on their way.

At least a few members of the staff recognized them and gave a wary look at the entrance of Sam, Jack, and Daniel, but nothing was said. The glances were enough to tip off the more observant members of _Serenity's _crew, though.

"I gotta say, a few of them folks workin' here don't seem terribly pleased to see you. Any words on that?"

"Oh, not many," Jack replied to Reynold's question. "Daniel here started a bar fight last time we came, got us banned for a while." Almost as one, the _Serenity _crew turned to look at the archaeologist, many of them raising an eyebrow or two.

Daniel flushed a little both from the scrutiny and irritation. "That's not exactly the whole story, Jack." At interested looks from nearly everyone, including Jayne, he continued. "We were - testing something for work. It gave us all enhanced speed and abilities, but it also skewed our judgment quite a bit."

"Now see, that there sounds like fun to me," Jayne said.

"Must not have worked out well," Zoe suggested, "since we haven't seen anything like that." She raised a brow, suggesting without a word that perhaps SG-1 had been keeping some of the more interesting things on the base hidden.

"Well, not only did we end up disobeying several orders while under the influence, the darn things fell right off with no warning in the middle of an op. Not exactly the most useful item ever," Jack explained with a sarcastic half-smirk. Reynolds and Zoe both gave sympathetic grimaces at that, though neither made any further comment.

The conversation flowed pretty well through dinner, if one could overlook the crude exclamations Jayne made over the size and quality of the steak when it arrived. They even managed to get through a couple of rounds on the pool table without incident, though it took the _Serenity_ crew a while to get used to the table. Apparently, pool tables of the future used holographic balls of all things. Seemed a little weird to Jack, but then considering the places the crew was likely to visit, perhaps keeping the things from being used as projectiles or stolen might be a major concern. All in all, the group had an enjoyable night.

It was just the first such outing of many, while they waited for Thor's return. For the most part after that first day, they stuck to after-hours and weekends so that SG-1 could do the things they needed to do around the base. As the time passed, the _Serenity_ crew relaxed into a routine and a more companionable relationship with the people and restrictions of the SGC. All of them, even Zoe, who had seemed so stoic and forbidding towards them, loosened up considerably and began to spend less time guarding the rest of the crew and more time just joining in with whatever they were doing on a given day. All of them except Reynolds, who never lost the restlessness and kept asking about Thor, no matter how many times he was told they just didn't know when the alien would be back and that he would be told as soon as the Asgard showed up - assuming Thor didn't just beam them all away without warning.

So when the man stalked into Jack's office (Hammond thought this was an ideal chance to make Jack catch up on his paperwork – d'oh!) with his face most resembling an angry thundercloud, the colonel expected another impatient tirade about alien hijackers and missing his ship. He sighed internally, but did his best to keep a calm exterior because he could sympathize a little. O'Neill began to explain yet again that there had been no world from Thor when Reynolds cut him off.

"Ain't about that." The man gestured abruptly, and for the first time, Jack registered he was holding something in one hand. Thinking back, he recognized it as the little computer tablet that had been briefly lent to Daniel and Sam to look over various information on the history and technology of the civilization the crew was from.

"So, do tell, what _is_ it about?" O'Neill asked, sitting back in his chair while he waited for the man to continue.

"Crew made a mail stop afore we got snatched up by your alien friend. Got a package addressed to me, but in all the excitement I stuck it in the bottom of my pack and near forgot about it until today." Jack expected the man to elaborate, but there was such a long pause before he continued that he was wondering if that would be the case after all as he watched the muscles in Reynold's jaw flex.

"You still telling me there's no way to get us back any faster than just sitting around waiting on that Thor fella?"

O'Neill sighed exaggeratedly. "Unless you want to go back without your ship through the Stargate to be stranded on that planet you found us on? No." Jack wasn't entirely sure that he liked the man all that much, but it was plain that all of his crew looked to Reynolds with varying degrees of respect and affection and he quite liked a few of _them_. Therefore, he added, "Is there some kind of emergency?"

"Got a message. Strange part is it heavily featuring the two dead members of my crew. Looking mighty alive, if not entirely well, in the manner of clearly being hostages."

Jack blinked. "Have you told-"

"No." Reynolds cut him off sharply, and then added while running a frustrated had over his face, "if we are truly stuck here, ain't nothing they can do about it until your Thor comes back."

Jack blew out a breath, "We can try sending a message to Thor telling him there's a problem, but to be honest it's really not likely to get him here any faster. Was there any more information about why they had your people or what they wanted? It's possible that we might be able to help, especially with the strange naquadah readings Carter picked up and your people being alive making it a serious possibility they have a sarcophagus."

"You really think your General is gonna go along with that?" There was a twist at the corner of Reynold's mouth that conveyed nothing but skepticism, and yet Jack was sure there was at least a little catch of hope in his voice.

"We've talked him into stranger things, that's for sure."

"Perhaps maybe you could, then. I gotta wonder myself why you would, though. Ain't no profit in it as I can see, and you won't never convince me a big operation like this one doesn't spend a great deal of time concerned about there being one."

Jack shrugged in acknowledgment. "To be honest, we want to avoid any contact with your Alliance government."

"It ain't _my_ -" Reynolds' return to temper was as true to form as it was completely expected. Maybe Jack was needling him just a bit on purpose.

"Yeah, yeah," he waved a hand idly, dismissing the beginning of an irritated disavowal, "but we also want to have a good idea of what's out there in the galaxy that could be trouble. If the Alliance is in possession of some fairly benign Goa'uld technology, they could also have more dangerous things as well. Since they're aware of Earth, if not of its current state, ignoring them and hoping they're never a problem could truly come back to bite us in the butt."

"Depends somewhat on the situation, of course, and what information you have..." he trailed off suggestively, hoping that Reynolds would either elaborate on what the message was or even perhaps pull it up so he could see for himself, since the man was still holding the tablet he'd presumably watched it on.

"Message don't say much. Just shows they've got my crew and gives an address I'm to wave when I'm willing to negotiate."

"Not a lot to go on, then." Reynolds didn't dignify that with a response, and Jack hadn't really expected him to. "I'll have a quiet chat with General Hammond about what we might be able to do to assist you folks without straining the resources of the SGC or calling undue attention. There are plenty of people who have access to our reports that I guarantee you don't want anywhere near your people or that government you're not so fond of."

It was obvious that Reynolds was unhappy about the circumstance, even more so than he'd been before. At first he was surprised that the rest of the _Serenity_ crew wasn't picking up on it and asking any questions, but then he gradually realized that they were acting differently by giving the man more space. Apparently moody and uncommunicative was a common enough state for their captain that it wasn't causing his companions any particular amount of suspicion.

Hammond had always been a reasonable man, and he patiently listened to Jack's suggestions that with the few and yet troubling things they knew about the Alliance that it would be prudent for them to find out more if they could. Yet, as expected, he didn't much like the idea of sending them back off with no idea of what they were walking into with no easy way home. The only Gate they knew of in the area both lacked a DHD and was out on the very edge of the territory besides. However, with Hammond, the fact that all of SG-1 had their reasons for wanting to investigate further weighed a great deal in the balance of making the decision. He wasn't quite willing to immediately okay their return when Thor made his presence known again, but it was obvious, to Jack at least, that Hammond was plenty willing to let himself be persuaded when the time came.


	8. Someone Other Than SG-1 Is In Trouble

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**Chapter Eight: Someone Other Than SG-1 Is In Trouble **

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It took Thor about six weeks to return, all together. By that time, SG-1 had also started to get antsy about the passing time. They weren't heading off on any missions since Thor was expected, and spending that much time on-world, if not precisely on downtime, was starting to drag. Granted it did so less for Carter and Daniel who had a number of binned projects to catch up on, but he and Teal'c were at fairly loose ends; prevented from leaving the base for any serious length of time and yet without anything much that needed doing there. Jack realized somewhere in the middle of week four that he was entirely caught up on paperwork for the first time in well, more or less ever.

So when he found himself suddenly aboard Thor's ship again, looking at the little alien guy, he felt a great deal of relief, and not just on behalf of the more antsy members of the S_erenity_ crew. "Hey, Thor, buddy! Great to see you back!"

"O'Neill. I have returned to tow the _Serenity _back to its original location. May I presume Captain Reynolds and his crew are ready to leave?"

"Oh yeah, they're definitely ready. Actually, Thor, SG-1 was thinking about going back with them, there's something strange going on back there. Except there's that whole problem with the Stargate out there not quite working ... Carter thinks she's got a program that would get the thing reset, but if there's any chance you could take a look at it, that'd be great."

"I see."

Jack rocked back and forth on his feet. "So. I should probably tell them to pack up? Unless there was something else you needed from us?"

"Not at this time, O'Neill. How much time do you believe is sufficient for your preparations?"

Jack thinks for a moment before responding, "Oh, a good thirty minutes should do it. We still need to okay things with Hammond."

"Very well."

Again, he found himself engulfed in white light before he was standing back in the SGC. He wasted no time in going to General Hammond to notify him of Thor's arrival and ask if SG-1 was going to be allowed to accompany _Serenity's _return trip. Hammond didn't give him a direct answer right away, opting to have the _Serenity_ crew and SG-1 called to the briefing room instead.

The briefing that followed was short and to the point, both because of the time estimate he'd given Thor and because it was fairly apparent that Hammond had already mostly made up his mind about what he wanted them to do. The General was willing to let them go back and quietly investigate the situation with the strange timeline, naquadah readings, and possible sarcophagus, so long as Thor was either staying in the area or able to verify that the Gate could be dialed out with Carter's program and one of the portable naquadah generators. It was obvious he wasn't thrilled with the idea of them being so far from the Gate most of the time, but he agreed the situation was one they really could stand to know more about. It was also possible that he'd been just as much charmed by Kaylee and River as everyone else had, and knowing what he did about that wave Reynolds was still hiding, agreed the group could probably use SG-1's help.

It turned out Thor had a bit of an ulterior motive after all. Just after beaming up all of SG-1 and the _Serenity _crew with their various gear and possessions, he had asked Carter about her thoughts on some technical something-or-other having to do with their ongoing war with the Replicators. It was obvious that the alien wanted to have a more in depth technical conversation with her about it, so Jack suggested she stay with Thor while the rest of SG-1 would be beamed back over to _Serenity _with the ship's crew. Despite Reynolds' desire to keep the knowledge about the message he'd received quiet until in a position to do something about it, Jack had made sure all of SG-1 knew about it. He wanted them as prepared as possible if they did manage to convince Hammond to give them a go, so he'd just need to fill Sam in on any additional details in the actual message and the crew's discussion of it.

As much as his teammates might accuse him of intentionally aggravating everyone they came across, Jack did know how to keep from antagonizing people – he just didn't choose to do so most of the time. This situation, however, was a bit different. They had to follow Reynolds' lead on this in several ways, and he really hated that a lot. Not only because he didn't like not being the one in charge, but also because it meant he had to play nice with the man, who was _at least_ as prickly as Jack ever was. Despite that, there were too many questions about the Alliance, and too much concern for the group that had helped them out to do anything but try to help resolve some of it given the opportunity.

SG-1, then, were the only ones not surprised when Reynolds told the rest of his crew immediately upon being beamed over that they were having a meeting in the galley. Well, and probably River. Though even after these several weeks together, it was hard to tell sometimes exactly how much attention the girl was paying to what was going on around her and what she knew about anything.

"Captain, what?" Kaylee's voice was all curiosity.

"Got something in the mail drop we picked up on Persephone. Didn't see it 'til we were already stranded at the SGC. Y'all should see it."

That said, the man set the tablet he'd pulled out of his bag in the center of the table and activated it.

At first, the screen was black, but then it came up with a picture after a few moments, a picture that was entirely made up of a face. Although they hadn't known the man, Jack almost immediately recognized the features as being the same as one of the men who'd been on those holographic tombstones they'd first found when they came through the Stargate. The exclamations of surprise that went around the table at the man's appearance only confirmed that this was one of the apparently resurrected members of Reynold's crew.

Unlike the pleasantly smiling holo they'd seen, however, the man looked far more scruffy and groggy. Or perhaps it was confusion coloring his expression. "Hi. I'm supposed to tell you that I'm me," the man jerked in response to something they could neither hear or see off-camera, "Hoban Washbourne. Zoe's husband. The pilot, you know, me, and not some impostor, though why you'd think that and where I am and _what the heck is going on," _the increasingly hysterical diatribe was cut off again, as the man looked apprehensively off toward something no one on this end of the video was privy to.

The screen went back to black again, only to resume with a message very similar in general content from an older man who looked much more composed aside from his truly impressive hair, identifying himself as Shepherd Book. Jack took a moment to take in the reactions around the table as this part of the message played. Most of them were in a state of confusion as profound as the look that had been on the first man's face. The exceptions were River, who was staring at the screen in fascination, and both Reynolds and Zoe who had fairly similar expressions of repressed, simmering anger.

O'Neill's gaze was drawn back to the tablet by the cessation of the Shepherd's voice, and saw the screen was just coming up from black again. This time, however, the screen was filled with words rather than a face. Unfortunately for Jack, they were not in English, but what he had to assume from the characters was some form of Chinese.

"Translation?"

"They want us to wave expressin' our willingness to have River do a job for them in return for seeing more of our people."

"Well, that's unpleasantly vague and lacking in detail, isn't it?"

"You're not wrong. Don't see as we have much choice but to contact them, but it gives a feeling mighty like walking directly into a trap."

"That won't exactly be a first for either of us, at least," Jack replied. Reynolds just eyed him with a closed expression that gave away nothing of what he might be thinking.

It was obvious from their expressions that most of the crew just didn't know what to think. The normally stoic Zoe wasn't among them, though. Even to Jack's eyes, she was fuming. "Is there some particular reason you chose not to share this information about _my husband_ before now, _sir_?"

Reynolds might be used to being in charge and unquestioned, but he wasn't idiot enough to not recognize from the tone that he was in serious trouble with his second. His response was as placating as Jack had ever heard the man try for, "Weren't nothing we could do about it afore now. No point in getting the whole crew frustrated by it."

It was clear this didn't appease her one bit, and Jack did have to spare a moment to wonder what the heck Reynolds had been thinking. Obviously the two were close enough that he should have expected this reaction to the secrecy, and yet, here they were. It was equally obvious that however she felt, Zoe didn't want to have a big fight about it in front of the rest of them, and just clenched her jaw against any further comment.

Either having realized he'd stepped in it, or perhaps just realizing that Zoe wasn't going to say anything further, Reynolds turned back to the members of SG-1 present at the discussion. "Which makes our first order of business once we get back to the right part of space sending that wave and hoping for some useful details. What I'm not entirely clear on is what you folks are tagging along hoping to accomplish?"

"Thor is taking us to check out the workability of the Stargate to get us home. If it can't, we won't be able to stick around for much, since you folks can't get us home and we couldn't get approval for any kind of ship with a hyperdrive. If the Gate checks out, we'll go along with you folks, help you to try and get your people back. Although it's not the only method we've seen, resurrections tend to mean Goa'uld technology. Helping you out would oh-so-conveniently help us get an idea of what exactly is going on."

"I don't recall askin' for your help." In the background, Jayne smirked. Apparently pissing off his second wasn't enough for Reynolds, he was going to try and go for the full set of everyone on the ship.

"Captain..." Kaylee began to plead, but Jack cut her off, not bothering to keep his irritation hidden.

"Look. Correct me if I'm wrong. These people know just about everything there is to know about you and every single one of your crew by now. You don't think it might be at all useful to have some backup they don't know about?"

"You're assuming we trust you that much." Jack rolled his eyes at the man; he couldn't quite help it. Sure he was trying to make this thing work, but he still had his limits.

Daniel, as always, was the one to try and placate. "We have a lot of experience at fixing problems, and we appreciate that you were willing to help us out before, so we wouldn't mind returning the favor. Right now we just need to wait and see what their demands are before anyone makes any hasty decisions. Our priority is to find out if the Goa'uld are involved here, and one of our biggest clues is what's happening with you right now."

This, finally seems to get Reynolds to back down a bit. The only thing Jack can figure is the man couldn't believe they were willing to help unless they were getting something out of it. Whatever. Daniel is more than up to the task of soothing ruffled feathers.

With their opportunity to return to the SGC, this time SG-1 had been prepared to add things to their packs to amuse themselves on space voyages, so Jack was playing with a fully-charged battery in his handheld when Thor beamed him back over to the Asgard vessel to let him know they were finally arriving at the planet with the Stargate in the Alliance's system.

The Asgard had their own interface system for the Stargates to bypass DHDs, but it was one of those technologies they figured Earth was too young to have. Still, Thor didn't mind using it for them in this instance to diagnose a problem. Once they were in position over the planet, Thor scanned the Gate to determine the nature of the malfunction which had prevented their earlier attempt to dial out using _Serenity_ as a power source. He and the astrophysicist conferred at the console for a few minutes before Carter declared they were pretty sure the interface and program she had mocked up (that she'd tweaked with Thor's help on the trip over) should be perfectly capable of resetting the problem and allowing them to dial out. It had already been agreed back at the SGC that they would dial Earth and check in with Hammond to verify that supposition before they did anything else.

Even if the existence of the Stargates seemed to be entirely unknown in this system and the planet itself was uninhabited, SG-1 went as a group to do so. They weren't in the habit of taking chances they didn't have to and there were too many unknowns about this whole civilization to just assume going back to the Gate was safe – even with Thor sitting in orbit. Besides, O'Neill needed to report in, Carter had to run the program, and Teal'c was needed to do a manual dial without a DHD.

All told, it took them about another thirty minutes before they were talking to Hammond over the radio. Kaylee had tagged along to see Carter's setup with the naquadah reactor – and the Stargate activation itself, which she hadn't yet lost her wonder over. O'Neill suspected that the _Serenity_ crew was still a little skeptical they could really just call a present-day Earth through the Stargate easy as that and wanted someone there to confirm it. They had good reason to not be the most trusting group of people ever, but it was starting to get on his nerves. SG-1 did not deserve their skepticism.

The team's ability to return home assured, Thor bid them all farewell. While SG-1 had been busy with their confirmation at the Stargate, Reynolds had been arguing with his ship's doctor about the young man's sister. Greatly overprotective of the girl, Simon did not want Reynolds to agree to anything involving his sister and was half-trying to talk the man out of responding to the message at all. To be fair, when pressed by Reynolds and the rest of the crew, Simon admitted he didn't have any useful alternative to responding, but that didn't seem to be enough to keep him from arguing. After all these years with Daniel, it wasn't exactly an unfamiliar scene, and Jack could even sympathize with Reynolds increasingly annoyed responses.

It didn't help that the argument essentially had a foregone conclusion. It was plainly clear the whole rest of the crew, including River herself and the generally self-absorbed mercenary Jayne, were more than willing to take any chance that might get them their missing people back. He'd been vaguely thinking for a while now that this strangely composed crew of misfits were a lot like his own oddly united team, and this only cemented that impression.

The missive they'd been sent had made reference to the whole crew, and specifically mentioned River, but it was addressed to the captain and therefore he insisted on being the only one to answer it. He repeatedly complained he didn't want to have to worry about any of the rest of the crew giving out any kind of information over the wave. There was no particular harm in that, so SG-1 didn't join in on the argument as they intended to stay hidden anyway. Which left them somewhat impatiently waiting out the crew's own arguments on the subject.

Eventually Reynolds went up to the bridge, followed by a still silently fuming Zoe, leaving the rest of them to wait and see what they were told. Jack fidgeted. It wasn't like he couldn't follow someone else's lead, he was in the military, for cryin' out loud! Still, after being nearly autonomous for so long, and that under Hammond's command - a man he trusted implicitly - it was a bit uncomfortable to have to follow the whims of a man he knew only a little about and trusted just a hair more. He didn't think Reynolds would intentionally put SG-1 in the way of trouble, it wasn't that. The man was honorable in his own way, but figuring out exactly what his way was gonna be from one moment from the next, that was the tricky part.

Also, things had been different before, when SG-1's only objective had been staying in relative comfort while Carter figured a way home for them. There hadn't really been opportunity to wind up at cross purposes with the crew or wanting to accomplish the same purposes by different means. He had known before they agreed to come back with the _Serenity_ crew now that they'd be left following Reynolds lead through the vast majority of their stay in plenty of little ways as well as a few big ones. _Serenity_ was their mode of transportation around the system, and the crew were both their guides and their best lead; it left SG-1 fairly dependent on them. Their purposes were parallel and related for the moment, but could easily come into conflict depending on the way things developed.

Still, as much as all that could be a problem, it ultimately came back to genuinely wanting to help these people, and being a bit concerned about the possibility of a real threat from their wacky-sounding government. He didn't have to like it, he didn't even really have to pretend to like it. At least not so long as he kept their relations from falling so far apart that SG-1 got shut out of what was going on. Considering the time Carter and Daniel had spent getting to know the crew while they'd all been on holdover at the SGC, he figured they could smooth things over if it started to go badly. Although he really didn't get the impression Reynolds was the type to take criticism well. Or even really listen much once he had his stubborn head set on something. All that was future bridges there was little point in worrying over right now, though, so he tried to put the worries aside while they waited.

It was quite a long while before Reynolds and Zoe left the bridge. From his vantage at the table, Jack noticed that the ship's second in command didn't even pause to consider rejoining them before pushing open a hatch in the hallway between the galley and cockpit that contained the crew quarters and climbing down to disappear from sight. It was obvious from the stiffness to her movements that she was still angry at Reynolds for not telling her about the message immediately. It bugged him. He didn't remotely blame her for being angry; going into a potentially hazardous situation with that kind of divisive problem hanging overhead was a straight up recipe for disaster though.

Reynolds, on the other hand, came back in to the area where they were all waiting, albeit in dragging steps to draw the distance out. Jack wasn't really in the mood to wait for him to get to it. Therefore, just as soon as he crossed the threshold into the room, he drawled out a challenging, "So?"

The man didn't do anything quite so overt as glaring at him, but Jack was pretty sure that he wanted to. The not-quite-glare was followed up by a sigh. "Didn't give much in the way of information, just said to head out in the way of Whitefall and wait for further instructions."

"Don't suppose you managed to get any better idea of exactly who you might be dealing with, here?"

"Couldn't rightly say. Feed didn't come in with video and the fella on the other end didn't say much. River'll be good to point out any real obvious schemes when we set down, but I don't much like that they aren't willing to make their demands straight out."

That was more or less it for the meeting that afternoon, though O'Neill knew it wouldn't be the last of their discussion. After the crew had all separated out in various directions for the evening, he called the rest of SG-1 together to congregate in one of the rooms to have their own strategy meeting.

It wasn't that they could really plan anything with the incredibly limited information available, but it made Jack feel better for them to go back over everything on their own. They did intend to help the crew retrieve their people if possible, but they also wanted to investigate the mysterious presence of naquadah and make sure, despite how improbable it seemed, that the Goa'uld were not involved. Or, almost as bad, that their interstellar technology wasn't available to the Alliance. It did seem the most likely confluence of all those goals was to assist in the retrieval of the _Serenity's _people – who might be able to answer some questions about how they'd been revived – but it didn't hurt to touch base and remind his team that they did have their own objectives to accomplish outside of the crew's.

At least that was the intention, though as Jack was moving to shut the door, River glided into the room to join them. Considering the girl was some kind of psychic, there wasn't much point in asking her to leave (though it did beg the question of why she came in to begin with since she could presumably listen in from anywhere), so he just gestured her in before closing the door for SG-1 plus one.

"Shouldn't eavesdrop. Only being polite," she tilted her head to the side to murmur in his direction as she passed into the room before flitting over to sit on the floor near Daniel.

They talked a bit about other possible avenues of investigation they might consider following up on after _Serenity's _missing crew was retrieved if the missing men knew nothing about how they'd been revived or by whom. Despite the presence of River, there was even some discussion made of how much they should be willing to go along with Reynolds' plans or whether they should begin making their own – either as a contingency or a roundabout – in terms of both the rescue attempt and any other investigations.

One of the most compelling reasons Hammond had for not wanting them to head back out here with the _Serenity_ crew was because their access to the SGC would be so limited. There was only the one Gate that they knew of, and it was out at the edges of the occupied system where no one had hyperdrives and it was situated on a deserted planet no one visited anymore. If they parted ways with the crew over differing opinions on how to handle the situation, getting back to the Gate might prove complicated and expensive.

So far the crew hadn't made any particular attempts to exclude SG-1 from their planning, but all of them shared the feeling they were being indulgently tolerated and nothing more. Truly that was pretty much how they'd been treated all along, with only a grudgingly given limited amount of trust. The crew was nice enough, and welcoming on the surface, but there was still a palpable distance they all kept. Even Kaylee. There just hadn't been anything important enough to bring it so clearly to the surface before now.

Despite what Jack figured was a looming future disagreement, the two groups did generally get along well together, and the shipboard journey off to Whitefall was a quiet, easy one. The settled portions of Whitefall weren't too big a proportion of the whole moon, so where to land wasn't too much of an issue. Although there were apparently some people Reynolds wanted to avoid if at all possible – it was never said outright, but pretty obvious all the same from the way he and Zoe were discussing – arguing about, really - possible landing sites.

By the time they were nearing the planet, the Firefly's crew had come to some kind of agreement as to the best place to land without drawing unwanted attention. SG-1 had stayed out of the bickering, figuring they knew nothing about the moon and its territories and that any place the crew could agree on was probably the same to them as any other so far as it went. They were going to be contacted on the planet, so the assumption was that either the message would reach them wherever they were, or they would have to move the ship somewhere they'd have no control over anyway.

There was some discussion by both groups, separately and together, about the relative likelihood that this was some kind of a trap – that they'd set down on Whitefall only to find themselves locked down by local control or blocked in from above by a fleet of Alliance ships. It was a legitimate concern, but no matter how much talking they did, there really wasn't much they could do about it. Whoever their mystery contact had been, they had all the power in this situation. According to Reynolds, it was a pretty promising sign that River hadn't freaked out as they'd neared the planet, but by now SG-1 knew as well as the crew that her access to her own abilities was somewhat spotty. The anticipation of a potential double cross kept them all anxious as they got through the process of setting down on the planet and were left to wait to be contacted again.

It was a part of the plan that SG-1 wouldn't be overtly involved in the negotiations with this mysterious unknown holding the missing members of Reynold's crew. Jack really didn't like playing invisible second fiddle too much, but there was good reason for keeping his people back. Even if the Goa'uld weren't involved, the presence of his team was a fallback ace for the crew of _Serenity_ who was sure to be entirely too well known to their mysterious enemy. He knew all that, and was set to deal with it. Yet when the call came in for Reynolds, he was left fidgeting again in the galley, unhappily waiting. It gave him enough time to worry about just how likely it would be the man might start conveniently leaving things out. Reynolds wasn't really a stupid man, but he didn't trust easily and had already displayed a problematic tendency to keep things to himself.

So far, they'd only really been told to go to Whitefall and that they were going to have to do a task of some kind to get the hostages back. Despite the lack of information, all of them had done quite a bit of speculation as to the designs behind it. It had seemed likely the reason they were being sent to Whitefall was because whatever the task was, it would require them to be there. Although Zoe had argued that it might have also been done so they would be out of the way of wherever these people actually were, or even that they were just waiting to see how fast _Serenity _would obey their orders. Which were also reasonable conclusions. Since the crew didn't seem to have any knowledge of who exactly these people might be or what they would ultimately want, it was hard to take a guess at any possible motives other than their stated interest in River and her abilities.

While they were waiting, Daniel was having Simon instruct him in some kind of local card game variant called Tall Card. There had been a little bit of temptation on Jack's part to join in, but he figured he'd probably just irritate the archeologist and the prissy doctor with his restlessness and opted out. He was already getting glares for the pacing he was doing, and as much fun as he found it to get on Daniel's nerves some days, this really wasn't the right situation for it. Teal'c at least, was enjoying watching the game, although Sam and Kaylee seemed to have half an eye on the game while the other half of their attention was on some kind of mechanical geek-talk discussion they were having. He thought it might have been an extension of their earlier discussion about how possible it might be to override port control locks on the ship, but he couldn't follow well enough to be sure.

Perhaps Zoe had been right; when Reynolds came stomping back down from the bridge, he told them gruffly to get ready for takeoff and didn't seem inclined to share much more right then. Which wasn't okay with Jack at all – they were staying here largely to help these people, after all. So he spoke up again. "What'd they want?"

"It seems they want us to rob a vault on a space station," he paused for a moment, and then clarified further. "More like they want River to crack some fancy protection code on a vault at the space station and have us bring them what's inside."

Simon was already spluttering protests the second River's name was mentioned, to absolutely no one's surprise.

Mal held up a hand towards the irate doctor, turned halfway back out the door towards the forward corridor, "And this here is exactly why I did not mean to say this now. Save the arguing for once we're back in the black, we got ourselves a timetable to be keeping."

Considering the dynamics he'd observed thus far, Jack half expected the doctor to follow Reynolds back up to the bridge, protesting all the while, but a muttered "boob" and a glare from his sister, who flounced off after the captain caused Simon to subside, at least for the moment.


	9. I Do the Job, and Then Bad Example

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Chapter Nine: I Do the Job, and Then … Bad Example

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SG-1 hadn't seen too much of Jayne since they had all come back aboard. The big mercenary didn't seem to like them much – with the sole exception of Teal'c, whom he seemed determined to cajole into lifting weights with him in the cargo bay. Although a lot of the time it was hard to see he really liked the crew he was with all that much, aside from the sense his suspicion of the newcomers was at least in part a protective urge. He'd spent time watching them when they'd first come on board _Serenity, _and had been relatively unperturbed by spending time at the SGC. Now they were back on the ship again, he was mostly avoiding them when possible, leaving whatever room any group of them had gathered in aside from mealtimes. While they'd all been waiting on Reynolds to make his call, the big merc had been down in his bunk, seemingly not particularly interested in the details of the current situation. Once the ship had taken off again, Reynolds called everyone back into the galley to discuss the "job" and the hulking man slung himself into one of the chairs at the table with everyone else, though.

For the most part, O'Neill's team just listened while the crew discussed their plans. They were here both to investigate and to lend a hand, but a heist was definitely more the crew's area of expertise. The station in question was parked in orbit of one of the few moons in the system that hadn't been terraformed, and was apparently named after some big Alliance muckety muck from that big war they'd been told about. From the discussion, Jack gathered most of these stations were a bit like quick stops along the road, placed in stretches of otherwise uninhabited space along reasonably popular routes – fueling, repair shops, sundry shops, a mail depot, and at least one bar were pretty much standard. From there, the contents varied, and this particular station also contained a secured bank inside, which was unusual.

The crew explained that while there were often places for changing credits to platinum and vice versa, as well as access to credit accounts for the few people this far out from the Core that actually had them. However, an actual bank vault that stored large quantities of cash and valuables was unusual. Although this station was not unique in having a bank, they were far less common on stations rather than planetside because of a higher incidence of attempted robberies in space. Undoubtedly one of the reasons this one had never been closed or moved elsewhere was because it was widely known for its boasts about the security on its personal deposit boxes. Which was what they were meant to break into, naturally.

Although all of his team was agreed about not butting into the crew's planning unless necessary, Sam was peering over Kaylee's shoulder as the cheerful girl was pulling up schematics of the station overall and the bank in particular, looking fairly impressed, presumably at the girl's skill. He couldn't help but be glad that Kaylee was the crew's technical specialist; if there was anyone on _Serenity_ who would happily accept help from any of SG-1, it was her, and from the description, it sounded pretty clear the hardest part of the operation was going to be the technical angle.

Their muttered conferencing over the various protections was interrupted by Reynolds, "So? Can you do this?"

Kaylee bit her lip, and exchanged a long look with Sam. "Most of it's real easy, Cap'n, 'til you get to the boxes. I can see why they said we'd need River's on that bit. But if she can do it, we can." After that she descending into some kind of barely decipherable technobabble he couldn't follow. Something about how the individual locks had elaborate key codes that had to be input in a certain way; it would be up to River's extraordinary brain's gift for patterns and numbers to crack that hurdle.

Apparently Reynolds couldn't understand much of it either, as he cut her off with a terse, "Good."

Looking past Kaylee to Sam, he gave her an inquisitive look she correctly interpreted as a question of whether or not she'd be able to crack the lock instead of River. At least he assumed that she understood what he was asking, as she stared back for a moment before biting her lip and slowly nodding her head from side to side, which he took to mean probably not.

Looking at the leery faces around the table, Jack realized he wasn't even close to being the only one who did not exactly love the idea of the whole plan resting on River's slim shoulders. Jayne, well, it just figured the big lug objected to anything he didn't quite understand, a part of Jack could even sympathize with that. A small part, but it existed. The uncertain looks visible on every face but Zoe's – and possibly only lacking on hers because this much time later it was still nearly as hard to read the woman as it still was to read Teal'c a great deal of the time – that was a lot more worrying.

When they'd first met the crew, he'd been surprised by how much they seemed to rely on the word of a teenage girl. Once they had heard the explanation of what had happened to River, it had made both more and less sense. She was often very useful, but even now was not always predictable. So while they always paid heed to anything her abilities told them, they made a point of not planning on relying on them too much if it could be helped.

After a few awkward moments of silence, the discussion picked back up again and turned to the best way to enter and exit. That quickly turned into a debate of obvious assault vs. obvious distraction. Unsurprisingly, Jayne put in an immediate vote for going in with all guns blazing. There was a brief muttering about grenades, too, that had Reynolds glaring at the man and ostentatiously rolling his eyes. Jack made a mental note to see if he couldn't get someone to tell him the story on that one, later.

Their route would take them five days to arrive at the station. They were ordered to be back on Whitefall to confirm they had the contents of the box and receive further instructions about what to do with said contents exactly eleven days from now. Obviously whoever was behind this didn't want them to have enough time to do anything else but carry out this robbery.

Speaking of which, taking part in a criminal enterprise was definitely a tricky bit of semantics for SG-1. The local government was obviously very wrong in a lot of ways, and they were talking about rescuing hostages and locating what could be a rogue Goa'uld with a sarcophagus. They'd done far worse things, both intentionally and accidentally, thankfully mostly accidentally, but it still seemed a bit wrong, somehow. Robbery wasn't really SG-1's style. He wasn't the only one to feel that way, though he was surprised there weren't more objections coming from Daniel – since there usually were. No, when they got together for their nightly meeting, it was Teal'c who was questioning the rightness of SG-1 allowing themselves to get knowingly involved with thieves. They discussed it for a while, and when it came down to it, they were back to doing what they were already doing; they liked the _Serenity_ crew, felt they deserved help, and it was their best chance at getting a shot at figuring out what was going on in this system.

The next three days were full up of various plans being tossed around by Kaylee and Jayne, even a few from Sam, despite SG-1's supposedly staying out of it. Of course, Sam butting in seemed to irk everyone on the _Serenity_ crew less than when any of her teammates did the same thing. Aside from Jayne's obvious leering, Jack couldn't help but find her perpetual ability to charm the locals no matter where they were amusing.

As they got closer and closer to their destination, Jack got the impression the crew was less suggesting things they actually expected to be used as they were just passing time until Reynolds told them the plan he wanted to go with. It wasn't anything terribly overt, just that every time more than two of the crew came together and started talking about it and the man was there, all eyes focused on him for a minute first, to make sure he wasn't going to say anything. When the ship's captain finally came out with the plan on the fourth day, Jack was unsurprised that he didn't like it much.

After all the talk, he'd expected something with a little more finesse. Then again, he bit his tongue and thought it over before commenting. He didn't see what was so special about Reynolds that the man was in charge, but it was obvious in a million little ways that even Jayne obeyed him, and getting on the bad side of the local guides was never a good idea until you were sure of where you were and where you were going. He supposed there was some merit to the crew just busting in and holding up the bank. It was clear from all the information Kaylee had presented (and Sam had verified) that just about all of the security in the place was tied up in the fancy codes of the sophisticated electronic locks. If River could crack them easy enough, there wasn't much need for a more complicated plan that could go wrong in a lot of unanticipated ways. Of course that brought the plan back to the original, fundamental doubt on everyone's minds. _If _River could crack them.

As much as settling on a definitive plan seemed to calm and reassure _Serenity_'s crew, it had nearly the opposite effect on SG-1. Not because they assumed it was a bad plan or that it would fail – as much as he didn't see it, Reynolds had kept this crew alive and together through any number of heists. Those as well as far worse troubles if any of their stories were true. Now that the crew had definitively settled on a plan, SG-1 was trying to do their own solidifying of what their backup plan should be, and that was something they weren't entirely agreed upon.

Teal'c had gained enough confidence from the story they'd been told about what had happened with River and Miranda that he felt the crew were "sufficiently able warriors" to carry out their task unaided. As such, he suggested SG-1 should simply wait back on the ship by a radio.

Daniel more or less agreed with Teal'c in conclusion, but his reasoning was that they needed to get the _Serenity_ crew to trust them more so SG-1 could convince them to be allowed to help later. Even Daniel didn't believe that whoever had the two missing men was just going to turn them back over for a single job, or even a couple of them. River was obviously too valuable for that, and there wasn't any question she was seen as a commodity by those who knew of the skills she'd been given.

Sam argued that they really needed to get the crew to agree to let some or all of SG-1 go along – most specifically, she wanted to be there at the vault to back up River. Although she'd expressed her doubts after first seeing the systems, additional time with Kaylee and the available data had her reconsidering. Now she thought she might be able to crack the encryption just a little less easily than the little psychic. She felt it was only sensible therefore that she go, because there was no worry she would suddenly "go all moon-brained" on them (as Jayne insisted on calling it) once they got to the bank.

Jack wasn't sure, himself. It was one thing to let another SGC team take the lead in an operation. He knew and trusted most of those men and women with his life, easily, because he knew everything he needed to know about their motivations in any situation that could be gotten into. Mostly. Barring the occasional Goa'uld or NID infiltration, anyway. These people? Not so much. They had shared a lot more of their personal history than might have seemed likely on River's endorsement, but there was still that factor of lingering reserve always there. Jack figured there was probably quite a lot they didn't know about the relative situation that could completely come back to bite them on the ass – old enemies or friends of the crew they didn't know, parts of the situation they didn't know entirely, anything. He didn't like surprises. He liked the idea of ending up in some Alliance jail even less. Especially if the whole thing was being run by a Goa'uld. No, strike that, Goa'ulds were SG-1's specialty, regular jail would definitely suck more.

Still, if someone else tried to butt in on an attempt of SG-1's to rescue their own people, he knew exactly how he'd be inclined to react. They did originally plan to hang back and keep it in the dark that the crew had any help beyond themselves available. It was just that the closer any actual action came, the more Jack felt like they should be actively _doing_ something.

There was also one further factor to consider. Both groups were well aware this could simply be some kind of a trap to lure them – or more specifically River - somewhere to be easily retrieved. He didn't exactly like Reynolds terribly much and only trusted him so far, but he had assumed the man had been bright enough to catch on to that without anything being said. Of course, after he'd assumed it, he'd had it confirmed the night before they were due to dock with the station.

Jack had been feeling a bit more restless than usual (he definitely preferred Stargate travel to all this endless sitting on spaceships, that was for sure) and had decided to go up to the galley, mainly for something to do. It was the middle of the ship cycle's night time, and he had pretty much expected to find the place empty. So he was surprised to be spoken to as he was stepping through the hatchway into the dimly lit room.

"You figure this is just a trap and they got no intentions of returning my crew?"

Jack hadn't really been looking since he was expecting no one to be there, so his eyes had skimmed right over the form of the ship's captain hunched over in thought on one of the lounges in the alcove.

"Wouldn't be surprised."

"Is there any kind of choice I ain't seeing, here?" O'Neill was certainly surprised to be asked, as he had rather pegged the man as the kind who never asked for help. It definitely raised his estimation of the captain a bit.

"Nope." Reynolds sighed in response, and Jack decided to give him a little more than that. "Look. Carter can make any kind of gadget in the universe do even more than it's capable of most of the time, but she can't do the impossible. If there was some easy way to trace these guys through the Corto-thingy, she'd have figured it out by now. If we can't figure where they are we have to do what they say until we can."

"I do hate walking into a trap all voluntary-like, though. Every gorram time."

Jack's face curled up into an unhappy smile. "Right there with ya."

It wasn't a major thing, and Reynolds' abrasive attitude didn't change after the conversation, but it had an effect on how Jack saw him. He'd done his own version of the stoic leader enough times to recognize it, and to know just what a pain it was to put on that front while trying to deal with all the doubts. O'Neill didn't exactly figure on becoming buddies, but seeing a little give in the facade eased his mind quite a bit.

The plan, such as it was, involved docking with the station and carrying out some legitimate resupplying business to give them justified reason to be there. After they'd been around and about enough, the action part of the team – Reynolds, Zoe, Jayne and River – would converge on the bank to do their thing. The biggest hurdle, and the part left until last, was how they were going to get back to _Serenity _afterward. There were a couple ideas floating around, from stealing another ship and rendezvousing elsewhere, to hauling one of the shuttles off to "pick up a delivery" from one of the stores closest to the bank, to just shooting their way back. It depended a great deal upon the docking bay location the ship was given when they arrived, and there was no way to predict that beforehand. Kaylee, Simon, Inara, and SG-1 were hanging back with the ship and going to stay in radio contact, hopefully able to come up with a plan on the fly to mount a diversion or a rescue if it became necessary. Considering what he knew of both SG-1 and the crew's past adventures, Jack figured it would be a sucker bet to think it wouldn't be necessary.

The crew did actually need to do some stocking up while they were at the station – SG-1 had brought supplies with them when they'd returned, but eleven people was a significant number, and they had no idea how long this wild Goa'uld chase was going to last at this point. Sam borrowed a few things from the other ladies on the ship to blend in with the locals and went out to look around as the crew did the shopping. That had been a compromise. They didn't want anyone to know that SG-1 was on the ship, but his team did have their own mission for being here and would know a lot more about spotting possible traces of Goa'uld culture than they could ever teach the crew in time to be useful. Sam and Daniel were the least threatening members of the group, and a passenger or two being ferried around on the ship wasn't likely to cause any serious suspicion, even if the ship was being closely watched. He certainly didn't want to have to sit through Daniel's whining about how he'd picked Sam, but Sam could both look for signs of the Goa'uld and evaluate the technology of the Alliance society on a wider scale. Also, Sam didn't tend to need a babysitter, whereas Daniel ... went to have a pout in his room after Jack mentioned that point, under the guise of accessing the Cortex again.

He'd honestly expected the archeologist to argue more than that, but was greatly relieved he didn't. Perhaps for once Daniel had actually picked up on all the tension about the very iffy undertaking the crew was due to try later that day and realized adding to it was not a good idea. It wasn't that Daniel wasn't a perceptive guy, in fact, sometimes he was too damned perceptive for Jack's comfort. It was more that he just never seemed to understand there were just some decisions he wouldn't be able to argue his way around, no matter how persuasive his contentions. He'd gotten a bit better about it over the years they'd all worked together as a team, but still, sometimes, he'd get stuck on an idea and wouldn't let it go. As a friend, it was something O'Neill could (secretly, at least) admire. As a commanding officer, it drove him nuts.

He did get a certain amount of amusement from drawing parallels between his Daniel and Mal's Simon. There was another young man easily convinced he was right and unwilling to back down in the face of any kind of threat. He hadn't shared the thought, even with his team, but it wasn't the only parallel he was drawing, either. Teal'c and Zoe, both very much strong, silent types, and unfailingly loyal. Carter and Kaylee was a little further from the straight lines, but they definitely shared a love of machines and a certain childlike glee in getting anything with moving parts to do their bidding. Although Carter was a heck of a soldier, and Kaylee'd told them all she'd be perfectly happy to never touch a weapon again, so it wasn't a perfect parallel. Every time he thought about it though, he made himself stop the comparisons there, because he wasn't going to compare himself to Reynolds, or worse, Jayne. He and the captain might have a few things in common, but they weren't at all similar. It was a command thing, or a coincidence. Yup.

Thinking about it was just a distraction from being stuck sitting around _Serenity_ for the afternoon while the others went out. Reynolds was still down in his bunk, either resting from being up for the landing at a ridiculously early hour or trying to come up with last minute ideas to refine the plan for getting back from the bank. River and Jayne were also staying on the ship, River because no one wanted to take the chance they had been lured here so someone could grab her, and Jayne, because the captain was afraid the mercenary would get distracted if allowed off the leash before the job. The big man had whined about it a bit when he'd been told, but submitted into docility easily enough, though he was currently trying to be menacing by cleaning a whole slew of weapons he'd laid out on the galley table.

It was apparently the only place on the ship that was big enough for it, as he'd already seen the captain doing the same thing a few nights into their trip here. Difference was, Jayne did it in the middle of the day and made as much of a show of it as possible. Reynolds had been at it after dinner one evening when Jack had wanted to go up to the bridge and see the stars for a while after he got sick of staring at the same metal walls. The remaining two members of SG-1 were arrayed around the opposite end of the table from Jayne with a set of Tall Card cards, passing the time. Daniel had invited the mercenary to join them, but when it was clear they weren't actually playing for any kind of currency, he'd sneered and gone to get his guns.

Things were pretty much as set to go as they were going to get. The ship had lucked out with berth assignments at the space station. They were nearly on top of the bank, only a couple floors up. There weren't any open, direct routes from the bank to the ship berths, except for the docking space only opened for official bank vehicles, but there was a locked access shaft that Kaylee was sure she could override the protocols for. (T'weren't nothin'.)

There had been one small, recent change with the plan that had come as a suggestion this morning after they'd landed. Looking very nervous about it, Inara had suggested she could get them into the bank vaults without needing to flash any weaponry. She was of sufficient standing through her profession that no one would blink an eye if she said she was looking into purchasing one of the personal deposit box slots like the one they intended to rob. When she wasn't immediately shut down, although if the look on Reynold's face was any indication, she might be soon enough, she rushed to add that River could pretend to be a younger Guild sister she was transporting between Houses and the others could act as her personal guard.

Discussion of her suggestion didn't quite turn into an argument, but O'Neill suspected the only reason it didn't was because both Inara and Reynolds were obviously trying very hard not to argue about it. She insisted it was far safer than their plan, more subtle, and didn't require anyone attempting to shoot their through untold numbers of guards and civilian traffic. He reminded her pointedly they couldn't be sure this wasn't just a trap for River and she wouldn't want to be in the middle of that if it all went sideways.

O'Neill figured Inara's plan made a whole heck of a lot more sense – SG-1 would be a lot more comfortable with it, too. They could always resort to gunplay later if they had to, but it was best avoided as a plan A when possible. He didn't say anything, though, because again, he was pretty sure Reynolds already knew that and this fight wasn't entirely about the job. Besides, he was fairly certain he didn't have to say anything to get them to switch plans – he knew Zoe would most likely do it for him if the captain didn't see sense on his own initiative.

She had. Come to think of it, that was probably a good deal of the reason Mal was actually down in his quarters – some planning might be going on, but it was more likely a matter of sulking. It was a better plan in pretty much every way, aside from additional risk to Inara. There wasn't much non-electronic security on the station, and the bank had no extra guards of its own because they were relying on that top-of-the-line technology, but going in with guns out was a risky business. Apparently run of the mill business for this crew, and perhaps they'd have handled it just fine that way, but it was a much better plan B. Then again, considering the comparisons between SG-1 and the crew in his head now, he had to think sardonically to himself that plan A never did work.

It wasn't so tough to sit out the shopping part of the excursion. It still lacked fun in an incredible way, since, so far as Jack was concerned, they had already spent far too much time in the interior of _Serenity_. Still, he wasn't too worried anything would go wrong for Carter and the others wandering around the station just like every other shipboard group that had parked there for a stop. There was some lingering potential just getting them here was the trap, but the instructions on the station's security and what was wanted from which security boxes had been awfully specific for a ruse. The evening shift where they actually pulled the job, that was going to be the really hard part; his team left sitting back listening over the radios and crossing their fingers that nothing went wrong. It was gonna suck.

The rest of the crew trickled back in as the afternoon wore on. Inara was the first to return, and she informed everyone in the galley she had gone ahead and confirmed her meeting for later in the day with the bank manager. Kaylee and Sam with Simon came back together soon after, although the two crew members had left separately to get supplies they each needed for their duties aboard the ship. Zoe was the last to arrive back, and in addition to her own personal errands she'd also done a bit of looking over the bank in person – schematics were great to have, but it was better to reconfirm that they hadn't gotten false ones, old ones, or ones with intentional omissions. Although he'd never applied the logic to banks before, it was a very familiar thought.

With all their preparations as good as they were going to get, and the day wearing on, all that was left was to actually carry out the plan. Inara was taking along a case of supposed personal valuables that she wanted to lock up in a safe. She'd take the tour, get the group into the room – the extra security needed to safeguard the valuables on the way sticking with her the whole time, of course – and ask the manager for privacy to deal with her affairs. River would – hopefully – easily crack the code on the box they were there to break into, and they could all waltz right back out of the bank.

There had been some grumbling about the cost of renting a box, but Jayne had subsided fast enough when he realized no one was asking for his cash to finance the operation. The group assembled in the cargo bay to go over the plan one last time. It was where SG-1 would wait for any news they needed to cause a distraction or mount a rescue. Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Inara, and River would be heading into the bank. Kaylee would be manning all the comms from the bridge and watching the official channels to make sure no alerts were going out. Simon would be freaking out at her side on the bridge.

There had been more than a little discussion about whether or not Sam would stay behind or go as part of the group once she'd gained confidence she might be able to open the lock box herself. It would be just as easy for her to pass as a second Companion accompanying Inara and River, and it was more common for multiple Companions to travel together in the outer reaches of the system. However, they were here at the orders of whoever was manipulating the crew. It was one thing to allow her to go about the station pretending to be an extra passenger, but it would be another for her to go along on the heist. If anyone was watching, they would know the crew had sought outside help. In the end, that argument had outweighed the potential benefit of Sam going along as River's backup. They did, however, go as far as having her pick out one of Inara's dresses with the intention of having her rendezvous with them at the bank if the issue was River being unable to perform rather than a trap.

Inara had done a hell of a job making up River to look like a Companion-in-training, using all her considerable skills with makeup to subtly modify the girls' features. There had never been time to put out any lengthy warrants for the arrest of the rest of _Serenity_'s crew, but River and Simon's faces could still raise alarm bells even now that the warrants for them had been rescinded. They had been posted for over a year, and banks were still one of the primary posting points for those notices. With the job Inara had done, though, it shouldn't be a problem. The girl even blushed prettily under the slew of compliments from the group, although Simon's were stuttered and the doctor was clearly dismayed to see how grown up his baby sister appeared in the getup.

Putting her on the comms would give Kaylee something to do other than worry, and she was the ship's technical expert with mechanics, tech systems, and blueprints. With her monitoring from the bridge, they'd know the second an alert went out, no matter how subtle the triggering event in the bank might be. O'Neill was half tempted to sit up on the bridge with Kaylee and listen in, just so he'd have a better idea of what was going on, but she was going to monitor the ear pieces of the group going in and tell SG-1 over the ship's comm immediately if something went wrong. It wouldn't take that much longer to run down from the bridge to the cargo bay, but it would take at least a few precious seconds, and there was no telling if that was something they'd be able to afford if it did all go cockeyed.

He had the worry pretty well under control until Kaylee's cheerful voice called over the ship intercom, "They're going into the bank now."

After that signal, the waiting was just as intensely worrisome as he had expected it to be. Kaylee was kind enough to call down on the ship's comm system and let them know that nothing was going wrong every few minutes or so, "Nothing on the cameras, 'cept some other fancy dressed people at the bank. Must be a big day, there's a line."

A little while later she followed up with, "Still looking good, manager's walking out and leaving the room to 'em. Gosh, River looks pretty." It wasn't as good as being in on the action, but it was still something of a help. It at least distracted O'Neill from conjuring any scenarios of what could have gone wrong that got too terribly elaborate before she updated them again.

He honestly expected it to all go wrong. Either for it to be the trap they half expected, or for the manager to balk at leaving Inara and her entourage alone in the vault room. Possibly for Kaylee's hack of the cameras to have been discovered and overridden, or perhaps for River to have a freak out and be unable to function enough to crack the codes on the box they needed. Plan A just never worked.

Yet somehow, after a period of time that felt interminable, but his watch verified was not really all that long, Kaylee's excited voice was telling them the whole group had gotten the goods and were on their way out of the bank. Even as he saw the group coming back up the ramp, he still wasn't entirely sure he could believe that something wouldn't still go wrong.

Considering the speed and terseness with which Mal demanded they lock it up and took off for the bridge to take them away from the station, he wasn't the only one that felt their luck had been far too good. He was less annoyed at having things in common with the man now, but it was still sort of irksome they both ended up finally relaxing about any kind of pursuit the very same morning, the fourth day on the way back to Whitefall.

In the meantime, while he had nothing to distract himself from paranoid worry that something from this whole bizarre setup was going to come back and bite them, Kaylee and Sam had been working hard at trying to modify the Cortex connector on the bridge. Unsurprisingly, after the way the crew had been contacted over waves, twice, Carter had come up with more than a few ideas about how a signal might be traced back across the system if one just had the right equipment set up. None of her ideas were particularly simple, or easy, but it was their best chance of getting ahead of these people and taking control of the situation. However, it was not something Kaylee had ever thought to attempt before and Carter was still largely unfamiliar with the systems.

At first the idea had just been floated as a wish - "too bad we couldn't". Now that the two had some time to brainstorm a clearer plan of attack and had an opportunity to stop for parts, they were cautiously optimistic their plan was at least theoretically possible. Enough so they were ready to give it their best shot if the ship was sent a message with further demands upon their arrival back at Whitefall.


	10. What's In the Box?

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**Chapter Ten: What's in the Box? **

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The two techies got their attempt at cobbling a tracer array together just in time, finishing it the day before they were due to make planetfall. River and Mal were on the bridge getting prepped for landing when the ship was hailed, as Jack and the others found out when Reynolds joined the rest of them in the galley after the ship had set down. He wasted no time in small talk, "Message just came in, said to mail the package out to an address from the postbox in Homeston, which we are just a few miles out from. Said they have eyes watching, and we'll talk further when it's done."

He just barely paused long enough for that to sink in before continuing. "Zoe, Jayne and I'll drive the mule into town and do the drop. You lot can stay here and watch the ship, make sure they're not just waiting for us to leave it and River out here unguarded."

"Fair enough," Jack said, not seeing any better plan. The situation hadn't really changed and the implication immediate action was expected left no time for second guessing. "Carter, you and Kaylee wanna take a look and see if your tracer did anything while the rest of us keep an eye out?"

Daniel went up to the bridge with Sam and Kaylee to keep an eye out from up there, while he and Teal'c followed the majority of Mal's crew down to the cargo bay to see off the mule and keep an eye out from there for their return or any suspicious activity around the ship. Simon split off from the group along the way to go to the medical bay, muttering to himself about preparedness and sutures. River was flitting around the group incessantly, almost jittery, though she refused to actually say anything when prompted by the captain asking if there was something wrong. Reynolds looked worried at her agitation, but finally told the others to get on the mule with the expression of concern never fully fading from his face.

SG-1 were unlikely to find any traces of what they were looking for out here in a back water like Whitefall, and they were unlikely to get anywhere in the Core worlds without Alliance IDs and a lot more sheer dumb luck than Jack wanted to rely on. He kept having to tell himself that helping the crew get their friends back, their friends who were suspiciously not dead, was their current best lead. It didn't make all the inactivity any easier to sit through, though. Not that he wanted something to go wrong so they'd have to act, but it was just boring!

He and Teal'c settled in to wait in the cargo bay after the mule had driven off, while River fluttered her hands a bit longer before she flitted off to do something elsewhere. He hoped she was just having an off day and that this wasn't an indication of bad things to come. Inara left them shortly after that as well, to head back to the shuttle she lived in, saying she'd be getting it prepped for takeoff just in case they had to do a rescue run. Even beyond the current situation, the woman had seemed to be at lose ends ever since SG-1 had met the crew. Apparently she was currently not working to stay with the rest of the crew, and everyone seemed to tense up greatly whenever anyone (mostly Daniel) asked questions about her future plans.

Standing guard with Teal'c in the cargo bay was pretty much just like standing guard with Teal'c on any number of planets they'd been to via Stargate. Only instead of waiting to see if Daniel or Carter had come up with any 'interesting' discoveries while watching for Goa'uld and hostile natives, they were waiting for Reynolds to return or Carter's trace to be completed while watching for hostile natives. There was nothing interesting to speak of visible through the open cargo bay doors, aside from the usual trees and grass and bushes. According to the crew, Whitefall was one of the more sparsely populated worlds out here, but it still generally wasn't a good idea to set down right near the towns without some solid knowledge of how friendly the locals were. Jack had heard enough mutterings to assume that the locals weren't particularly friendly to this ship's crew for some reason.

It was some time later they saw Kaylee coming down from above to head to Inara's shuttle. She gave them a jaunty little wave and called down something about some doohickey burning out and Sam trying to recalibrate it for another go on the next communique. He only really listened enough to get the general idea that their apparatus hadn't worked. He figured if Carter was still working on it, there was hope for some fine tuning to make it functional. From what they'd said when they first came up with the idea he'd figured it working on the first try was definitely a long shot, so this wasn't a major surprise. Not that Carter's technical genius wasn't up to almost any task, but most things did take her at least a little while to sort out, especially when it was an entirely alien technology setup that they had yet to deal with before.

He wasn't really sure if he expected something to happen to the crew on the dropoff or not. Part of him thought that whoever was pulling the strings here would be perfectly happy so long as they had River secured on the leash of concern for the lost members of the crew. A second part figured that whoever it was would keep them doing menial tasks across the system until they were lulled into a false sense of security and then make a play at grabbing the girl. The final part, the part that always expected a Goa'uld to be lurking at the back of any given plot, figured any one of those guys wouldn't be able to stand that they wanted the girl and she was still on the loose and would make their move sooner rather than later. Ego considering, they'd probably also try to take or do something nasty to the rest of the crew, too, for having been thwarted in their previous efforts.

After they had come back to the crew's native system the second time and he'd been going over things in his head, it had occurred to him that back when they'd first met up on the planet, River had immediately responded in the negative when he'd been mentally trying to guess if she was a Goa'uld. Having been reminded, he'd wondered if she'd just been able to pluck the concept out of his head that fast, or if she had actually heard of the creatures somewhere else first. Since it would be very telling if It was the latter, he'd tried to ask her. He had waited until she was having what seemed to be a pretty coherent 'good' day to do it, but that hadn't helped. She'd almost immediately descended into cryptic gibberish and run off, and he'd had to deal with the girl's brother glaring daggers at him the rest of the day. When the second time he'd considered attempting it had resulted in a day where he mysteriously couldn't find her at all on the small ship, he'd given it up as a lost cause. Since then it had remained a question in the back of his mind, but if it upset the girl that much to be asked, well, she was just a kid and she'd had a hard enough time of things already without being prodded about it. If they got down to the point where they didn't have any more options, well, maybe then it would be time to revisit the idea of trying to ask her.

It seemed like it took just shy of forever, but hadn't really been that long at all by the watch he wore, when Teal'c spotted the mule in the distance, returning to the ship. He let out a breath, both relieved and a little disappointed. It was only a couple minutes more before they were pulling the mule in and Reynolds was jumping out to stalk off up the stairs, presumably headed for the bridge. He and Teal'c stayed behind to help hitch the mule back up to where it was stored in suspension. Although the job could have been done by Zoe and Jayne alone, it did go faster with more hands.

"Any luck?" It was Zoe who asked, obviously hoping that Kaylee and Sam had managed to give them something to go on with their attempt to trace the signal's origins. It was clear none of them were at all happy about just sitting back and letting someone else direct them about with no guarantees they would ever get the rest of _Serenity_'s crew back. To know that one of their missing members was Zoe's husband, however, he understood why the terse woman had been even more on edge than the rest of them.

"Sorry, no," he said plainly, knowing she wouldn't appreciate any overt expression of sympathy. He grimaced, and added, "Some bit or other in their doohickey fried. Last we heard Carter was trying to fix up a better work around to try again next time."

She gave him a curt nod in reply before closing up the cargo bay's outer door and stalking off. Jayne just grunted in their general direction before leaving as well. Simon came back out to the cargo bay about then, presumably having heard the mule drive up, looking glad to see no one yelling for him to use his skills.

The implication of the message they'd received upon landing was that they were being watched and they would receive further communication as soon as the drop had been made, but that was not the case. Whoever it was behind this clearly wanted them to stew for a bit first, and didn't wave them again until four hours later. The intervening time was pretty stressful for all involved, and SG-1 came to an unspoken agreement to stay out of the way after the first hour of silence.

Expecting the wave much earlier, Reynolds had been pacing the length of the bridge nearly the whole time, waiting for it to come in. It hadn't done anything good to the man's normally irascible disposition. According to Carter, who had been up there still fiddling with the components of their attempted tracer, he had just glared the rest of them out without a word to take the message. His grumping had worked well enough on Carter and Kaylee, but Zoe refused to leave, and apparently that was okay, since the door shut after they left. Jack saw this from his own vantage at the table in the galley. At the time, Simon and River were off somewhere and Jayne had descended into his bunk until they knew what they were doing next, muttering imprecations about them needing to get coin for doing real jobs, not this "c_hing-wah tsao de_ heroical _go se_" - whatever that meant.

The message was apparently a very short one, as Sam had just settled down at the table with Jack when the door to the bridge slammed back open. River, entering from the opposite direction, presumably coming up from the lower decks somewhere, said just one word, "Boros" before continuing on through towards the bridge. Zoe, who passed her in the doorway between the galley and the forward passage, confirmed that they had indeed been instructed to go to a specific docking berth on Boros and await further communication.

It was nothing they hadn't expected, really. It would be too easy to expect that one little job where nothing had gone wrong would be the only price demanded. Still, everyone's frustration at having the reality confirmed was palpable. O'Neill got the impression the ship's crew was only presenting as united of a front as they were because they had outsiders aboard. It had been obvious from Reynold's first words that his second in command was pissed at the man for not telling her immediately after he'd discovered the message lurking in the bottom of his bag. The woman never said anything overt about it in front of SG-1, and Jack would bet she probably hadn't said anything out of their earshot, either. There was just a feeling of stretched, uncomfortable tension between the two of them that had only come into existence since then that still hadn't abated. Also the fact the two seemed to be avoiding each other, unless they specifically had to work together, indicated they hadn't sorted out the issue yet.

Nothing to be done about it from his end, though. He didn't like the idea that a great deal of their mobility in this place relied on these people and the heads of their team were so obviously out of sorts with one another. Even still, if he thought either one of them would listen to advice from him – a pretty stupid bet, all things considered – he wasn't entirely sure which of them was in the wrong. There hadn't been anything for Zoe to do about the message while they'd all been stranded at the SGC, but it was her husband's return to the living that Mal had chosen to keep from her. They desperately needed to all be on the same page here, but he was smart enough to know that his butting in was likely only to make things worse.

Nothing of note happened on the way to Boros. There was a brief crew meeting the day before they landed, assigning ship's tasks to various members of the crew; they'd stocked up well before the run out to Whitefall, and done some supplementing during those hours of shopping on the station, but they needed to do a serious supply run once they made dock at Boros, aside from whatever their mysterious kidnappers demands were this time around. SG-1, unfortunately, was sticking to the same arrangement as they had come to on the space station. There was no sure way to know if they were being watched, or how closely, but they did want to keep their presence mostly a surprise, if possible. Only Sam had left the ship before, pretending to be a recent passenger and looking about for any further signs of the Goa'uld or their technology. It was quite possible that whoever was keeping tabs on _Serenity_ had been watching before they'd sent the message out to her captain, but aside from them doubtlessly wondering how the heck the ship had disappeared as it did, they did not necessarily know that anyone other than Sam had remained with the crew. Perhaps it might have been better to have all of them remain aboard, but Carter's ability to sense naquadah and all of her little techno gadgets from home that only she was intimately familiar with were their second-best bet at figuring out what was going on in this system. Assuming they could get what they needed from the possible goose chase that the crew was on right now was not a bet they should leave un-hedged.

Too much more of this, though, and they were going to have to rethink things. Aside from what Daniel might say on the subject, Jack could be patient when it was necessary. Driving themselves stir crazy on this mobile tin can of a ship for much longer, however, was only going to be worth the potential element of surprise for so much longer. Not to mention that they were still the SGC's premiere frontline team. There was only so long they'd be able to justify their presence in this system to those with power back home without producing some kind of results.

For now, they'd get through the landing on Boros and see where that put them. Both in terms of whatever they were demanded to do next and in terms of whether or not Carter's attempts to back trace the transmission across the Cortex met with any success. If not, Kaylee had said something about a part or two that she thought could help them in that regard, though expense might be a problem. Granted their little adventure for Thor had given the ship a fair bit of leeway, but without knowing how much longer they were going to be strung along and therefore unable to take further jobs to keep themselves afloat, she wasn't sure if the captain would go along with them putting out money for something that wasn't certain to make the idea work any better.

A large portion of the crew set out on errands almost as soon as the craft set down on the planet. Jayne on 'personal time' was off to a whorehouse; Jack figured keeping the big brute happy when they didn't have any work coming in was probably a move Reynolds had employed before. Zoe and Kaylee went to look into various necessities for the ship, and Carter left with them, one of her less conspicuous gadgets in hand to see if they came across any interesting readings on this world. River stayed behind, as the girl still apparently didn't function so well in crowds of people most of the time, and her overprotective brother stayed behind to keep an eye on her, presumably. Likewise, Reynolds stayed behind and waited on the bridge for their next contact.

There had been some serious discussion the previous day about the likelihood of a trap. It was an ongoing concern with these messages leading them blindly around the system by the nose. Unfortunately, the same concerns about going stir crazy being constantly stuck together apply to Reynold's crew as much as SG-1. After a great deal of discussion (and some shouting), they had come to the conclusion that they should take the risk of operating as normal. Whether or not whoever was sending these messages had direct ties to the Alliance, they didn't seem willing to attempt to take what they wanted openly, and Boros' spaceport was too populous and controlled for anything to go without notice. It was also too close to the outer systems to be easily covered up. Especially now, after the Miranda debacle had stirred up more ill will and suspicion towards the government than anything since the Unification War. If the additional instructions they received involved going off to some out of the way meeting point, that would be a different story, but for now, the relative risk was as low as it could be with an unknown enemy.

Because the _Serenity_ crew was mostly out or occupied elsewhere, Daniel was the one who ended up talking to the driver of the wheeled mule that drove up to the edge of the lowered cargo ramp several hours after the ship had landed. Teal'c and Jack had been staying out of sight but watching the open cargo doors for any unusual interest in the ship – they were still considering the possibility that someone might try to grab River or even other members of the crew to get to her even if it seemed unlikely – but Daniel was absorbed in some article or another on the portable Cortex screen Simon was still letting him use and not paying much attention to whether or not he was visible.

Daniel had become increasingly competent as a part of a military team over the years SG-1 had been together, but there was still a great deal of absent-minded professor in the man even now when they weren't in an obviously hostile situation. So when the unfamiliar driver got off his conveyance and called a hallo into the open bay, Daniel was up and answering to him before it occurred to him that they were supposed to stay hidden – and before anyone else could remind him.

Teal'c and Jack prepared themselves for this to turn unpleasant, but the man simply said he was there with a delivery for a Captain Malcolm Reynolds that needed a signature and thumbprint. While Daniel was moving to call Reynolds on the bridge over the intercom, Jack directed his attention back to the vehicle the man was in charge of, and more specifically, the fairly large crate strapped onto it.

Although there didn't appear to be anyone else around and the man with the delivery appeared unarmed, they kept a close watch on the situation as Daniel waited for Reynolds' response. Himself a master of being pointedly nonchalant in a completely unexpected situation, Jack instantly recognized the same in the other man as the captain came loping down the stairs from above. The rest of the crew still on the ship, too, came into view from their various locations – Inara coming out from her shuttle and River and Simon from the lounge and infirmary behind the stairs. He didn't take too much notice of their appearance, other than to note that River seemed entirely unconcerned. He didn't let that relax him completely, but he mostly trusted in the crew's belief that she would be able to warn them of nefarious intentions.

He noticed the crew emerging as he listened to Reynolds making seemingly-idle chatter with the delivery man, though it was obvious to him that it was all in the intention of trying to gain information about the package. Although he asked no direction questions, Reynolds managed to affably inquire as to where it had come from, who it was from, what might be in it, and how long it had been in the possession of the man's employers. Unfortunately, beyond what was on the delivery slip about the cargo – from a random subsidiary of Blue Sun addressed to Malcolm Reynolds to be delivered to _Serenity_ at the docks on Boros today, and the fact that it had arrived at their warehouse only this morning – the man didn't really know much.

Mal directed the man to unload it into the cargo bay, after allowing him to drive his conveyance up the ramp into said bay, and after assisting in the operation of unloading, sent him off one crate lighter with a jaunty wave and a smile. Which disappeared exactly as soon as the man was out of sight.

Even if he hadn't already decided to give up the pretense of staying out of sight after Daniel's little slip, Mal's interrogative look in their direction would have decided him on the same course of joining the man to inspect the delivery. He wasn't alone, as gradually, the whole group of them ended up gathered around the mysterious crate.

Mal looked them all over once before heaving a sigh. "Reckon we ought to open it, know what we're dealing with."

"I take it you're assuming it's not going to explode if we try that?"

Mal wasn't the one to answer that, though the man had opened his mouth to give some kind of a response. "No boom. Roof hasn't caved in, but the lights are dimmed." River said matter-of-factly, pressing her ear to the crate for a moment, before stepping back solemnly to rejoin her brother's side in the circle around it.

"Okay, then. Crowbar?" Jack suggested.

_Serenity_ was a cargo hauler, so it did not take long at all for them to find something to pry open the crate. The three members of SG-1 were surprised and confused to see that the crate contained another box inside, though this one was obviously far more hi-tech. Made of some kind of bluish metal, it had several control panels with indecipherable blinking displays. It only took a scan of the faces around the crate to realize that none of the crew seemed confused as to the purpose of the box, though the conversation that picked back up a few seconds later easily confirmed it.

"Is that one of those cryo-" Reynolds started to ask, looking specifically at Simon, who was peering intently at the box and all its myriad readouts.

"It does look like one of the standard models. And it's definitely in the middle of a cryogenic cycle," Simon states definitively before giving a slight nod to himself and pulling his attention away from the readouts. "Looks like it's supposed to start the awakening process in two days. It can be opened before that, but there's a higher risk of the patient going into shock after, even if I administer all the appropriate medications."

"Don't suppose we can take a peek at who's inside and leave it to cycle?"

"No, Captain. Opening it will immediately interrupt the controls."

"Cryogenics? As in .. freezing people?" Daniel asked. Jack had thought the term sounded vaguely familiar, but had waited for Daniel to ask the question, instead. The archeologist was useful like that.

Simon fielded the question as this was obviously his area of expertise, "Yes. The process of putting people into and pulling them out of cryogenic stasis was perfected in the late 23rd century. It's most often used to halt the progression of a disease while tissue cultures are grown to replace damaged cells or to transport the infirm over long distances that might be draining on their health." The young doctor paused to take a breath before continuing on. "There's no way until it's opened to be absolutely sure that there's actually someone inside, of course, as the readings can be faked. This isn't the exact same model, but a similar one to the one that was used to smuggle my sister out of the Academy."

"Open it," the captain said decisively, in a grim tone.

Immediately, there were objections, the most coherent of which came from Inara, "Mal, are you sure? If it's only two days-"

"Captain, shock can be a serious condition and we don't know if whoever is in there was hurt before they were put in. It could put their health in jeopardy." Simon weighted in with his own opinion, all but over the top of the Companion's objection.

"You made your case, Doctor. Fact is, we are in serious need of answers here and, well, I don't want _anyone_ coming back here getting their hopes up for nothin', _dong ma_?"

Simon didn't look entirely happy at this pronouncement, but then again, neither did he look entirely disapproving, either. He moved forward and took a few moments to look over the control panel before pushing a couple of buttons and then using a lever to crack the top of the case. He maneuvered the lid off the container carefully, and they all moved forward again to get a look at what was inside.

It was impossible to see anything at first, with all the fog rolling out of the top of the box, but it eventually cleared to reveal a figure curled up in a fetal position amidst cushions conformed around the human shape. It was obvious that the man inside was nude, although there was a mesh covering laying just under the inside edge of the container protecting the man's modesty and obscuring everything but his head and shoulders.

Even if the looks on the faces of the crew hadn't given it away, Jack recognized the guy, even in profile and looking more haggard than he had in the still that had been part of the message Reynolds had received. The others had called him Shepherd Book.

While they had been gawking, and Simon had been opening up the device, Inara had left. She came back now with a blanket from one of the passenger dorms at the ready, and not a moment too soon, as the man in the box gave a great gasping heave and his eyes snapped open wide in obvious fear and disorientation.

The woman handed the blanket over to the captain, and he and Simon both moved in closer, talking in gentle tones to the man who was struggling to get out of the cramped quarters of the unit. Jack exchanged a look with the rest of his team and part of him wanted to have them all step back to give this little reunion some room and the man as much privacy as there was to be had under the circumstances. He was far too cautious to go with that though.

"Teal'c."

The big Jaffa knew exactly what O'Neill was asking, and moved in to get into close proximity to the man, while trying his best to stay out of the way of the doctor's efforts at assistance and examination.

After a moment he stepped back to the rest of SG-1, saying, "I do not sense the presence of a Goa'uld within him."

Not knowing the man, it was hard to say much about him, though he definitely looked groggy and shell-shocked. The captain and the doctor ushered the man back into the ship, getting him into the infirmary so that Simon could do what was possible to stabilize his condition. It was only a minute or so before Mal came back through, muttering something about trying to find some clothes, looking distracted.

Jack just shrugged at his companions and followed after Reynolds, volunteering that if any of SG-1 were the right size they could spare a set of clothes for the man. The team was otherwise at a bit at a loss. They had been waiting and hoping for the chance to question someone about what was going on here, but it was obvious he was in no condition to recount what happened to him right at the moment. Further, to the crew, this man has just returned from the dead – and all other concerns took a backseat to the unexpected reunion. It was understandable that the crew seemed to be at something of a loss. It was one thing to have someone sending them abstract claims this man was alive and well and could come back and another entirely for them to see it with their very own eyes. SG-1 well knew it from their own experiences.

It was perhaps an hour later when Zoe, Kaylee, and Sam arrived back at the ship, all three of them showing a great deal of interest in the opened crate containing the now empty cryobox. It was obvious Kaylee and Zoe really wanted to know, but were perhaps a little afraid to know, if anyone had been in it, so it was Carter that actually made the inquiry as to what was going on. He filled them in on the appearance of the delivery man and the opening of the cryo container and whom it had contained. He finished by saying that Simon had taken the man to the infirmary to check him over and administer a few things to help him with the shock of coming out of the freezer. Kaylee and Zoe both headed off immediately in that direction as soon as they'd heard the full account, though Carter stopped to examine the box itself with increased interest instead.

Daniel was lurking in the infirmary with the rest and would no doubt fill SG-1 when this Book fellow was in any shape to start answering questions, so he didn't feel too bad about just loitering in the cargo bay and watching Carter look over all the gizmos on the box. Even though he had no idea what she was doing the vast majority of the time, watching Carter figure out new doohickeys was still one of his favorite past times when nothing else was on offer. Although it wasn't something he could indulge too often, as she'd complained it made her nervous.

The group as a whole was waiting on Book to feel well enough to talk, but Simon had sedated him to keep him from suffering additional ill effects from coming out of the cryo sooner than advisable. He hadn't been able to get anything coherent out immediately upon emerging from the box, according to Daniel. Considering his age, the doctor felt sedation was a necessary precaution, even though all of his tests showed the man to be in extremely good health. Until they could talk to him, they were at loose ends.

It was a fair guess that his arrival was what _Serenity_ had been sent here to wait for, but they couldn't be sure they weren't to expect a further message over the Cortex before they left, so the whole group was left stuck in limbo. While the crew of _Serenity _would normally be looking to get themselves some kind of a transport job from their local contacts, they were bound to the whims of whoever had been pulling their strings lately. It made no sense for them to take on a commitment they then might have to renege on.

A full day passed without any incoming messages before Simon declared that Book was stable enough to be brought off the medications and therefore should shortly be coherent enough to be able to answer questions. The whole group of them gathered together at the infirmary, though SG-1 was crowded around the doorway, peering in, instead of actually being in the room. All four of them were conscious of the fact that this was going to be a somewhat emotional reunion and didn't want to intrude any more than they had to. Yet they needed to know what this man knew at least as much as the crew did.

Jack and his team kept out of it as the group had their joyous little reunion, full of "so glad you're backs" and "never thought to see you agains" as well as big smiles on happy faces, even the captain and Zoe were fair to beaming, not to mention the mercenary Jayne. As much as SG-1 were impatient for things to finally go somewhere with this long, screwy mission, they weren't about to put a damper on that. Eventually, however, Reynolds did it for them.

"As glad as we all are to see you again, Shepherd, specially seeing the way you looked when last we met, we've got some mighty powerful questions as to how it is we're seeing you, 'specially looking so hale and all."

"Got a fair few questions on that score myself, Mal. I remember Haven, the attack on the mining camp, the pain. Then dying, looking at your ugly mug." He paused to take a breath, and appeared to be thinking through his next words. "Should have been the end of this life, but I woke up to bright white light. Would have thought it was heaven, but for the fact I was in a box."

"I figured it was some kind of new Alliance tech, kept as secret as that Academy our River ended up at, but aside from a few connections leading off to computer banks, it didn't look high-tech at all. It was gilt all over and covered in strange symbols..."

"Like Egyptian hieroglyphs?" Daniel cut in to ask, excitedly. The presence of a sarcophagus was what they had been assuming from the first was behind the resurrection of the _Serenity_ crew members, but it wasn't the only technology in the Universe capable of such things.

"As it happens, yes, I do believe so. Might I ask who you are and why you knew that?"

"Oh. Uh, I'm Daniel Jackson, Doctor Daniel Jackson. We're familiar with the sarcophagus technology, my team and I, that is. SG-1." He gestured at the rest of the group in the doorway, who the man on the infirmary table seemed to be actually taking in for the first time. "These are Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c."

Book interrupted, passing a glance between those in the doorway and the Captain, while raising a very intrigued eyebrow, "Colonel and Major?"

"Of the United States Air Force," Jack interjected with a jaunty motion that was mostly wave and a tiny bit salute. "From Earth. Which you will no doubt be surprised to find out is doing just fine these days. We haven't quite figured out yet why you folks are under the impression that it's the 26th rather than the 21st century and that Earth is 'used up'."

The man on the bed quirked both eyebrows high on his head at this bit and said, "I see," in a way that indicated both humor and an entire lack of actually seeing.

"Might tickle you to know, Shepherd, that your miraculous recovery is only the latest in a string of mighty peculiar events we been through while you were off busy bein' dead."

"We even met a real live alien guy!" Kaylee had to interject with enthusiasm.

"Two, actually, if you're talking about Thor. Don't forget Teal'c, here."

"Oh! Right! Sorry, Teal'c," she added sheepishly. The big Jaffa bowed his head in acknowledgment with a small smile.

"Now, I'm sure any and all of us will be more than happy to fill you in on all the fun details later, but right now, we're all very interested in what you remember of the people that had you captive. Especially if, say, their eyes tended to glow at all," Jack asked, before the conversation could get any further sidetracked.

The man blinked quite a bit at that, and passed a glance from SG-1 back to the captain again before being sure that they were all being entirely serious. "Truth to tell, I don't remember much. As I said, there was a bright light, a strange gold box, and a succession of medical-looking white rooms. Strangers who looked normal enough asking me to tell them everything I knew about River, and later, the captain."

"Did you see Wash?" Zoe asked quickly, obviously interested in getting to the matter closest to her heart.

His glance over to the woman is quick, and definitely unhappily surprised. The reply he gave was short and definitive, but sympathetic in tone. "No."

"Did they ask you anything else? Did you notice anything about the people or the rooms that might give an indication of where this place might be located? Was there anything said about how long they expected you to be in the cryobox?" Unfortunately, the spate of questions from Daniel brought out nothing more than a pensive expression followed by a rueful head shake to the negative.

The disappointment that flowed around the room at that was practically palpable. Jack hadn't really expected them to get either of the crew members back spouting immediately about Goa'uld voices and glowing eyes with a roadmap back to the place that they were being held at, but he had hoped for something just a bit more concrete to be going along with. It wasn't like a Goa'uld to not try and intimidate prisoners with their claims of godhood, but on the other hand, nothing about the Alliance's setup really said Goa'uld. Except those mysterious naquadah readings and now the confirmed presence of a sarcophagus.

There was certainly precedent for thinking that perhaps the Goa'uld had just left some tech behind and this Alliance had only found and taken advantage of it. That would make sense in terms of why the Stargate they'd come through was left abandoned out in the middle of nowhere. Although even without the Goa'uld, with naquadah, it was possible they could figure out hyperspace travel and come looking for Earth – even if they thought it dead – and that could turn out just as problematical for the SGC. That was why they needed to know what was going on here and if they should do anything to interfere with it. Unfortunately, the way things were going, they were going to need a plan B to actually learn anything useful. Of course, with their record at things, that shouldn't in any way be a surprise.

There was a great deal of joy among the crew to have one of their own returned, but it was soon overshadowed by anxieties and irritation at their helplessness to retrieve Zoe's husband. A certain expectation had existed that either Book would have been given a message as to what they were to do next, or that they'd have gotten a further transmission by now. Neither was true, and on top of the crew's resources dwindling and more than one of them getting fidgety from a lack of anything to do, it gave them all time enough to think. For some, that meant time to draw some fairly ugly conclusions about the current situation.

The original implication of the message was that _Serenity_ would get both of her crew members back. Kaylee, and perhaps a few of the others who hadn't entirely thought it through might have been naive enough to believe it. River had been manipulated into her current state apurpose, no doubt with plenty of applications of her skills in mind. They had proceeded to lose her by grossly underestimating her brother, and then failed to get her back when it required going through Mal – that undoubtedly looked easier on paper.

Now? They had the girl and her protectors right where they were wanted – entirely at their direction. It even made sense for them to give one of the hostages back when they had a spare. The images of the two men in the message could have been faked. It would doubtless have been high-tech and expensive, but the Alliance was certainly advanced enough to manage such a thing. Having a living breathing Book back amongst them, though, that would solidify the fact that they weren't lying. Although if it was him, he'd have certainly made sure Book saw their other captive with his own eyes so he could report back to them about it. Unless leaving them unsure as to whether or not they had both men was part of the plan? The one thing that did seem sure was that there was some kind of a plan, and there was no way these people would willingly relinquish a way to control River voluntarily.

He was certain this was going through the minds of Reynolds and Zoe at the least, although it was carefully never brought up in front of the rest of the group. SG-1 talked about it in their own meetings, though, trying to figure what might be done. Unfortunately, a whole system of inhabited planets was a lot of ground to try and sort through with no obvious leads. Their current only option was if Sam's tracker worked the next time the crew received a message. It wasn't that he didn't have faith in Carter's ability with technology, quite the contrary, but even if it worked and gave them someplace to look, there was no guarantee the messages were being sent from wherever the remaining man was being held, and Jack just didn't like not having options.

They had gotten River to confirm that the place she could see in the Shepherd's mind was not at all similar to what she could remember of the Academy. Although that had taken more than a little coaxing and at least one fit where she barricaded herself into a hidden cargo compartment for a few hours. It hadn't been something that they'd been eager to ask her, but you couldn't exactly hide things like that from a psychic, and it was both good and bad that they could eliminate one place from the list. It might have been easier if it was the same place, since Simon had infiltrated it once, but then no one wanted to ask River to have to go back there either.

.

.

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A/N: I can't recall Stargate canon ever establishing exactly what the limits of the sarcophagi are. For plot convenience's sake, I'm taking some liberties here and assuming both that the _Serenity _crew did not plaster everyone in the Haven settlement to their hull and that there were Alliance personnel lurking close enough nearby to scoop up someone so clearly important to the crew reasonably fast in the aftermath.


	11. I Am Unsure, He Is Concealing It

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**Chapter Eleven: I Am Unsure, He Is Concealing It**

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After they'd been sitting in dock for a week with everyone on board getting increasingly restless, the captain suddenly announced over dinner that night they were taking a job and leaving port. The previously ongoing conversations around the table came to a halt of ringing silence, which the man was quick to fill with reasons. Jack found the latter a bit surprising, as Mal Reynolds hadn't struck him as the kind of leader that explained or justified much of anything if he didn't have to.

"We've heard nary a word since we were told to put down here where they delivered the Shepherd. They know enough about us that they're going to start wondering how we can afford to run the ship, we don't start taking jobs. We don't start doing jobs we _won't_ be able to afford running the ship."

"What about Wash," Kaylee asked, hesitantly.

"These folks want control over River. I reckon they're wanting us to sweat a bit, but they'll be back in touch."

"They're never going to give him back." Zoe's voice was relatively quiet, but her tone was harsh enough to carry through the room.

It was a grim truth that quite a few of them already knew, but still, several of _Serenity's_ crew tried to protest Zoe's words. Jack had been trying to guess in his head which of them had already figured it out. Kaylee's surprise was not a surprise. River had been listening in on SG-1's meetings and likely the minds of everyone on board, so she certainly knew, though her brother looked nearly as shocked as Kaylee. It was obvious that Inara was distressed, but he honestly couldn't tell if she was distressed by not having realized what the score was, Kaylee's upset, or the fact that Zoe had actually just come out and baldly said it. He was interested to note that neither Jayne nor the newly returned Shepherd Book seemed at all shocked either. He hadn't figured Jayne to think that far ahead, but perhaps he'd been too quick to dismiss uncouth and sometimes thoughtless as stupid. As to the Shepard, well, in the few chances for conversation they'd had so far, he seemed strangely worldly for a man of the cloth. While Jack had been distracted by noting the crew's reactions, the conversation had continued on without him.

"Which is why we'll just have to make them," Reynolds directed at his second.

She didn't so much respond as mutter a slew of Chinese under her breath, which from the expressions of those nearest to her, he assumed was probably a string of impressive invective.

"Actually, that's why we need to find them so we can make them," Jack added.

"Just that easy then?" Zoe challenged.

Jack shrugged. "I didn't say anything about easy."

She huffed and went silent again. It was a little surprising, really. The woman didn't speak much if she didn't have to, but she'd obviously been wanting to take it out on somebody ever since they found out her husband was actually alive and being held hostage somewhere. When she'd started speaking, he'd figured that time was just about now, but apparently he'd underestimated her ability to forebear. Or she was yelling at Mal in private after the rest of them cleared out after meetings – he supposed that just because it was obvious they hadn't resolved the conflict between them that it didn't mean they weren't fighting quietly somewhere.

Unfortunately, the job the crew was taking on wouldn't take them back anywhere near Haven – they really should check with Hammond before too much longer, and O'Neill made a point of making Reynolds aware of that. On the plus side, it would take them to visit a planet they hadn't yet seen. Sure, the relative odds that there would be anything like they'd found on Persephone – except less guarded – were pretty small, but a guy could hope!

Right now their only possible leads were that compound on Persephone they didn't want to risk trying to infiltrate and the possible wave tracing device Sam and Kaylee had cobbled together. It wasn't a whole lot to go on, but SG-1 had often managed with less, and they were unlikely to find themselves on a time clock quite yet. Although if it took too long, SG-1 did have other obligations back home. Hopefully the whole place wouldn't fall apart without Carter quite so fast as it always seemed it might.

While he was putting in hope for impossibilities, Jack also hoped they'd figure this whole thing out and know exactly what they were dealing with before he and his team went completely stir crazy. Considering he was already half-feeling that way, it was definitely a hope likely to be unrealized. It wasn't so bad on the ship, and he did quite like most of the crew, but so much of SG-1's life was action and this was just – lots of sitting around as the ship trekked between planets.

The crew made their deal and then picked up another cargo that Reynolds had obligingly found needing a drop out near Haven so SG-1 could report in. Carter got the naquadah generator hooked up and the dial home went as smoothly as could be expected with Teal'c putting in the requisite muscles for the manual dial. Hammond was a little unhappy with the time that had passed since their last check in, but they had all understood from the beginning that was going to be an issue. Thankfully, things seemed to be mostly quiet around the galaxy and at the SGC at the moment as well (except for a minor quarantine issue with a plant specimen brought back by SG-8, from the sound of it).

The crew of _Serenity _listened in as SG-1 made their report, as all of them had wanted to see the Stargate in action once again – or for the first time, in the case of Book. There wasn't too much to be said – basically just that they were still trying to find leads as to what was going on, although they had now confirmed the presence of a sarcophagus being used. Hammond reminded them to try and keep a low profile, just in case it didn't turn out to be the Goa'uld since they didn't want to get involved with the Alliance at all if it could be helped, and they cut the connection.

They were unfortunately stuck mostly playing a waiting game. Sam still broke out her doohickeys whenever they traveled to a new planet, but so far, Persephone was the only place she'd been able to pick up any traces of naquadah and they had seen no other signs anywhere of technology left by either the Goa'uld or the Ancients. So what they had left was waiting to see when they would be contacted by those holding _Serenity_'s pilot, and hope Kaylee &amp; Carter's doohickey would give them some clue that would enable them to track the transmission.

Shepherd Book turned out to be a fairly fascinating character who was very interested in SG-1 and what they could tell him about the peoples out in the rest of the universe. He was also greatly curious about what SG-1 was thinking they might find behind his revival and captivity. That first night they'd explained briefly what they'd already told the rest of the crew about Earth and the Goa'uld, but Book asked a few more pointed questions about what their government might do about the Alliance.

Jack explained that he hoped they didn't have to do anything, though he said it specifically when the captain wasn't around. SG-1 wasn't out to overthrow every crappy government in the universe, as tempting as it might sound from what they knew of the Alliance. At the moment, they just wanted to make sure that the system wasn't really under the control of a Goa'uld. In the case it wasn't, they also needed to know if amongst the Goa'uld tech they knew someone here possessed there might be any kind of hyperdrive. With these people actually remembering they came from Earth, that could be a tricky combination and something the governments of Earth aware of the Stargate program would prefer to be able to predict or head off ahead of time.

He'd almost expected some kind of protest from the religious man about the fact that they were hiding such a big, dangerous secret from the majority of their world. Conversation made it apparent pretty fast that Book was no typical religious man, though.

It was clear how glad all the rest of the crew was to have their friend back, but unfortunately, Zoe's words in that meeting back on Boros had put a damper on everyone's spirits. A few because they hadn't realized that it wouldn't be so easy to get Wash back, and the others because they were no longer pretending to be unaware of that fact. A whole month of jobs went by, as well as a second check in with Stargate Command before they received another mysterious message. If he'd been asked to take a guess at the contents of the next message before it was sent, Jack would have expected it to say something about their unauthorized departure from Boros or to threaten consequences for the same. He would have been wrong, though, as there was no such mention. All the message contained was a statement about how they now had living proof and instructions for the ship to proceed to Osiris.

Jack was surprised at how the expressions around the table changed quite a bit at the mention of the specific planet. He was going to ask what the deal was, but River beat him to the punch. "Core planet. Covered in sensors and feds. Home to the Tam estate. Not home anymore, Simon."

"Well, that's ... well." What was there to say to that, really?

Reynold's expounded on what the girl had said a little more usefully. "Truth is, we avoid the Core unless we got no choice. To be sure there's more civilization, but there's regulations upon regulations to control it, and you do not want to be found lacking in papers there. Records like ours, you don't want to be found there at all."

"Oh, goodie. Sounds like real fun. How likely are we to get in and back out without a fuss?" Jack asked, with fake enthusiasm.

The captain's answer wasn't particularly reassuring, "It'll be most like to hang on how long we're required to stay loitering about."

"We all gonna be stuck on the boat like that time on Ariel?"

"Do you really figure we wanna chance drawing extra attention on a Core world, Jayne?" Zoe derided.

The answer was sensible, but less comforting than SG-1 was hoping for. It would be bad enough for the crew to encounter further problems, already stuck in the middle of some esoteric blackmail scheme, but for the SGC team to be discovered and questioned or held would be worse. They knew a lot more about the system than they had when they first arrived, but not enough to fake being locals well. According to Daniel, there were a few outlying planets where people were not automatically entered into the Alliance's databases and given ident cards, but they were few and the people on them rarely left their underdeveloped planets, let alone made trips to the Core.

In the whole situation, there was one thing that could possibly figure in their favor. It was highly likely that some component of the Alliance itself was ordering them to Osiris. Assuming they wanted to go with the status quo of continuing to order River and the crew carry out their demands, it was possible they would have measures in place to prevent having the ship searched by anyone aside from those involved. Of course, that wasn't necessarily a safe assumption; they might have been ordered to the Core because they'd be easier to seize there without any protest and limited escape routes. Still, they had to follow the instructions until they had a better way to attempt to retrieve their man, and they just had to hope that they weren't going into a trap they couldn't maneuver their way back out of.

Once the meeting Mal had called to tell them all where they were going was finished, he and River headed back up to the bridge to take off and set their new course (they'd been waiting to see if they could rustle up an outgoing job after making a drop on New Melbourne). Carter headed forward with them, too, intent on checking to see if her efforts had yielded any results in tracking the message that had come in.

Jack was curious enough on that score to follow her forward after giving her a short span to investigate. She was still immersed in the project and muttering to herself when he arrived. A few minutes after that, Carter sat back from the piece of equipment she'd been fussing with. She didn't say anything, so impatient, he prompted, "Well? Did it work?"

"Not entirely, sir. We got a partial trace. Definitely one of the planets in the Core network, but no more narrowed down than that. I think I can use this result to recalibrate and try to fine-tune it better for longer range without risking a blow out like the first attempt ..." She degenerated back into muttering to herself in half-decipherable technobabble, and Jack left her to it. He figured it was a good sign that she still thought it could work. Usually by now she'd have figured out something wasn't going to and tried a new tack if there wasn't much hope of getting the result she needed.

It was a bit of a longer trip inward toward Osiris than any of the others they'd taken so far. When he asked about it, the captain said they were doing their best to plot around the most used routes and thus the most likely places for Alliance patrols – which would be a bit more frequent in the Core. It wouldn't necessarily be a complete disaster for them to be boarded at the moment, since they weren't actually carrying anything illegal – according to Reynolds, often enough no one would ask for identification for passengers. Sometimes, however, they did, and unfortunately the fact that they weren't really carrying anything but SG-1 passing as passengers might cause a bit of suspicion. Of course a fair dose of it would come just from a vessel like theirs visiting a world like Osiris in the first place.

Frankly, it was a little surprising there wasn't more conflict between the two groups on the way to Osiris. Sitting in a small freighter on a week and a half long trip with the increased chance of running into patrols exacerbated everyone's tension levels. At least on the shorter cargo drops they'd been doing there was a chance for most everybody to get off on the planets a little bit and have a break from each other.

They had to keep Daniel and Jayne separate after Jayne started getting pushy towards the archaeologist – apparently he'd developed a long-standing habit of ragging on Simon, and saw Daniel as an equally geeky pushable type. Daniel didn't take well to being pushed around or taunted, though, and it had just seemed easier to distract Daniel than to try and reason with Jayne. It wasn't so terribly hard, though, since aside from mealtimes and time spent on his weight bench in the cargo area, the big merc still kept to himself in his bunk for a great deal of the time. And Jack so preferred not to know what he was doing with all that time down there.

His astrophysicist kept herself busy going over the ships systems and engines with Kaylee. Jack wasn't sure what she was doing – if she was actually working on something or just tinkering around to have something to do, and he figured if it was at all useful to their mission she'd be sure to let him know.

Teal'c spent a lot of time in kelno'reem, unsurprisingly. The interesting thing about that was that he was trying to teach it to River. The doctor had been a bit neurotic about little sis following the big alien guy around as much as she did at first, but as much as Teal'c was intimidating, he was also hard not to respect. It was also obvious that River enjoyed the meditation and the attention of an instructor, so the objections died out reasonably fast.

Still, as much as his people were trying to keep busy, and how it could have been so much worse, everyone was relieved when the captain finally announced that they'd be making planetfall on schedule the next day. There was nothing that the ship was immediately in need of in terms of repairs or supplies, so they would set down and hope not to be left waiting too terribly long before they were contacted and given some idea of why they'd been sent deep into Core territory.

They only had to wait a few hours after they set down before they received the next message; apparently whoever it was didn't mean to make them stew too long this time, which made them more unpredictable. That, of course, only made the crew more anxious, not knowing at all what was coming next or when. No doubt that was what these people wanted – all of them off-balance and jumpy. River's perceptions might be a bit hard to get around, but once they had her somewhere accessible, well, the doc had told them all that she had been conditioned to drop unconscious at a specific phrase. That had just made him angry and horrified all over again for the poor girl, but there wasn't much to be done about it. The Alliance was too big and its secrets too well hidden, sadly, though hopefully in the case of _Serenity's_ still-missing crew member, that would soon change.

The request itself was strange and seemingly arbitrary. They were to pick up a package at a local postbox and have the Tam siblings accompany it to be dropped off at their parent's estate. While Simon was still busy shouting angry denials about letting River do any such thing, Carter took her chance and slipped up to the bridge again. For just this once, Jack actually envied her love of doohickeys, since it lent her a valid excuse to avoid this conversation. It was loud, and heated, and SG-1 mostly stayed out of it. It was pretty obvious that Daniel wanted to try to intervene and cool off the tempers involved – Simon on one side and an abnormally vociferous Zoe backed by a calmer Mal on the other – but Jack did his best to glare the man into staying out of it. He hadn't remotely expected it to work, but between there being little room and too much volume for a quieter interruption and the glare, Daniel actually was able to get very little in edgewise. Although it was likely he would have changed his mind again and gotten involved if Teal'c hadn't suddenly stood, garnering the attention of the whole room, and done it himself.

"Simon Tam, do you have an alternative plan for retrieving the husband of Zoe Washbourne?"

"Well, no, but ... River! I can't let my sister just walk into a trap!"

"Do you not trust your companions to ensure her safety? Do you not wish for the return of your crewmate? Are you not bound by honor to facilitate the return of a comrade who died protecting you and your sibling?"

Jack knew from occasional experience that it wasn't easy to argue with the Jaffa. That didn't mean, however, that Simon didn't try. His voice was steady, if a bit plaintive, and it was clear that he was already struggling a bit with himself. "I know, I know. It's just – everything I've done has been to keep River safe. I realized after the whole Miranda situation that I let that blind me sometimes, but she's my little sister."

"Protecting one's family is a most noble cause," Teal'c inclined his head, but then raised it and gave Simon one of his more intimidating stares. "Yet your sister is a very capable young woman and you have other important loyalties." With that, Teal'c sat back down, obviously considering the matter closed.

Simon's mouth fell open and then closed again a few times in succession, as he struggled for something else to say, but in the end, he too fell silent. Since the shouting seemed to be done, Jack was about to suggest that they get to some kind of planning, but Carter came back in right then. Before she even started to speak, the triumphant smile on her face gave away what she was going to say.

"Got it, sir. Both traces follow the same path and this time I got all the way back to the source. Pinpointed it on Londinium." Her words immediately got the attention of the whole rest of the room, who hadn't previously paid much notice to her return.

"This fancy trace a' yours come with specific-type coordinates on Londinium?"

Despite the challenging tone, Carter didn't look at all dissuaded or offended at the possible slight to her competence. "Down to the location of the terminal it was sent from. Can't get any more specific than that."

"Been said many a time in these messages that they've got eyes on us. Don't see as to how we have much choice but to go through with this business here and worry about tracking the _wang ba dan _down sneaky-like after. Be long gone from Londinium by time we get there they catch on we're headed straight in that direction. Don't know what they might be like to do we don't follow their orders, either."

"Hell, Mal, they only got the one hostage, they can't exactly risk killing the little man."

"They could do him a fair amount of damage, Jayne. I'd like my husband back with all his limbs and such."

"Um, actually, they could kill him. Over and over again. They have a sarcophagus. So far as we know, there's no limit on the number of times that someone can be revived, but it's very bad for you – addictive even. We have allies that even say it destroys your soul," at the looks on the faces of the crew around him, Daniel rushed to add, "but all we know for sure is that it's addictive, and throws the whole body completely out of whack, including the brain."

The shepherd looked fairly perturbed by Daniel's mention of souls being destroyed, but he was beat out on commenting on it by a torrent of questions from Simon. "You've done medical research on this sarcophagus? Do you have any further details on what exactly it does? Should I be worried about any other aftereffects with Shepherd Book?"

Daniel winced. "I was speaking more from personal experience, unfortunately. A single trip now and then doesn't seem to have any particular ill effects, but a number of uses in close succession does very bad things to you."

"You know that from personal experience?"

It was obvious Daniel didn't actually want to discuss it any further, but either Simon couldn't tell that, or just plain didn't care. The archaeologist answered anyway, "Yeah, unfortunately. I wasn't myself at all, and uh, the withdrawal afterward was just, well, it wasn't fun. A single use doesn't seem to show any ill effects though, so back on point, so long as we don't do anything to draw their ire before we get a chance for a rescue it shouldn't turn out to be an issue at all."

"Daniel's right. We don't need to go borrowing trouble before it gets here on its own." Simon turned to him, then, perhaps hoping that Jack might gainsay Reynold's declaration they were going to go through with sending him and his sister to a place they had no desire to revisit. Jack could sympathize, if he had parents like theirs, he would do everything possible to avoid going back home even if it didn't smell like a trap. Unfortunately, "I agree this task has to be done before we start thinking ahead to anything else. The only question is what we're going to do to make sure no one gets captured in a trap. We've been staying hidden for good reason, but SG-1 is definitely willing to act as a backup plan here."

"So you agree it's a trap to capture my sister!"

"I agree it's a good place for one, but that's been true of every stop so far, considering they knew where we'd be well before we did. We've discussed a few possibilities for keeping a rescue team close to hand on these more inhabited worlds where it'd be easier to spirit someone away. Best one we came up with involved going on more fake Companion business in Inara's shuttle."

"Have to go, Simon. Say goodbye to Gabriel and Regan," River added, distractedly.

"What about you, little Albatross? Got any inklings this is a trap?"

River turned to face the captain when he spoke. It was obvious that her brother was upset about the prospect of going anywhere on Osiris, but it was hard to tell what River was feeling about it. She cocked her head to the side and came out with, "Many voices, many paths. Parental units don't know little lambs aren't lost, but haven't made any deals."

"Now what in the gorram hell does that moonbrain _chui niu_ mean?" Jayne grumbled.

"If there is an ambush, River Tam's parents are not party to it," Teal'c clarified.

"That doesn't mean there isn't one," Simon argued mulishly. "I'm sure they didn't know what the Academy was when they sent her away there, but they couldn't be bothered to be involved in trying to get her out, either."

"We'll take it under advisement, doc. You said you figure on using Inara's shuttle?" The last was directed at him from the captain.

"We've been having our own meetings, as maybe River has told you. Figured that if we were along to help, at some point we'd need to, and in a regulated place like this we figured we'd need an excuse to be out and about. You know the territory better than us, though, so if there's some other idea you have, we're not set on it."

The man gave him a piercing glance, but then turned to address the shuttle's owner. "Inara? You feel up to being part of the rescue squad this all goes sideways?"

The graceful woman who had been pretty much silent until now responded with a regal nod. From the stories that had been told around the table on the slow nights out between planets, it was clear riding in to the rescue was not a new task for the Companion.

That decided, they moved on to further planning the actual contact. Kaylee and Book would remain with the ship – and they'd keep it locked down to prevent anyone from trying to take it while nearly everyone else was out. Inara would take a day trip to the nearest shopping district to the Tam estate, with SG-1 staying on the comms in the shuttle, waiting for any kind of call to assistance from the primary team. The mule only ran well with four because of the modifications Kaylee had made for extra speed, but they were left with five people still. River and Simon had to go along; it was part of the instructions. Mal also seemed to take it as given that as the captain he got to go on the team going in. Which left a choice between Jayne and Zoe. Sadly, either one was the obvious choice for only one of the situations. If it wasn't a trap, Zoe would certainly do a better job of preventing any tensions between the Tams and their parents from escalating. If it was, Jayne, had a certain undeniable skill in any manner of fighting. Not that Zoe couldn't hold her own, but from what Jack had seen, he'd almost say the man was some kind of idiot savant about weaponry and brawling. Or maybe it was just that he couldn't be bothered with anything that didn't have the potential to explode? In the end, it was decided it would probably be easier for everyone involved if Jayne was left under the watchful eye of Reynolds while the rest of them did potential rescue detail in the shuttle.


	12. Since When Does Plan A Ever Work?

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**Chapter Twelve: Not Exactly Plan A, Since When Does that Ever Work  
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The first part of the thing went smoothly enough, as Mal left the other three on the mule and went into the post station to retrieve the package they'd been sent to get. There had been some concern about the fact that they were picking up an unknown item that could be anything, but the one thing they felt reasonably confident in assuming was these people wanted River alive. Even given that they had a sarcophagus, there were some injuries and circumstances the device didn't seem able to reverse, so they were unlikely to take chances with the girl they wanted so badly.

Once they had the mystery package in hand, the mule headed towards one of the more affluent suburbs of the city. This was one of the more worrisome parts of the plan. The post station and the Tam's estate were in the same moderate size city. While movement in the shopping districts and other tourist-y attractions was fairly free, the more upper class residential areas had strict air-traffic controls. It left them choosing from relatively limited routes on the ground and meant that if they had to use the shuttle, it was going to draw immediate attention.

SG-1 were sitting in Inara's shuttle with Zoe at the controls, listening over the radio to the crew on the mule. Not that there was much of anything to be heard at the moment. There hadn't even been much of an exchange between Mal and the man behind the counter at the post depot. Now there was only the sound of the running mule and the slight bit of traffic around it, which thinned out more and more the closer they got to the estate.

"This the place?"

"You'll have to use the intercom on the gate. I really never expected to come back here," Simon replied, sounding far more subdued than the generally argumentative doctor usually did.

"_Jing cai,_" was followed by the sound of Mal's footsteps and the buzz of an intercom, "Got a package delivery here. Figure someone told y'all to be expecting it." A few seconds later, Mal's voice again, considerably softer, obviously just meant for the transmitting radio he wore, "Got a camera panning atop the fence."

"Very well. Pull up to the front, but do not exit your vehicle," the voice was tinny coming through both the intercom and the radio, but still noticeably disdainful for all that.

Again the only thing to be heard was the sound of the mule running, presumably pulling them into the estate past the perimeter fence. Before they'd all left the ship, Simon had related what he remembered about both the grounds and the house, just in case. The crew trusted River's word that the elder Tams were not knowingly involved, but that didn't guarantee they wouldn't find trouble waiting for them at the estate.

As if she could hear Jack mulling over the concern of not being able to see what was going on and worrying there was an ambush, and maybe she could, River said offhandedly, "Just the parents and the servants. Anxious to see us back home, don't know it's not home anymore. Feel guilty, but want to forget."

"_Mei mei_," Simon began, but the doctor couldn't seem to think of anything to say in response.

There was a pause then, during which the mule's engine was turned off and everyone was left waiting to see what would happen next. The next thing they heard was again Mal, asking, "Doctor, you know..."

"My parents," Simon's voice confirmed, almost robotically.

The next voice over the link was unfamiliar and female, sounding all but hysterical. "River! Simon! Oh, children, it's so good to see you!"

Again, Simon replied, sounding as if he was talking to some distant acquaintance he didn't much like. "Mother. Father. We were told to drop a package here. If you'll be so kind as to tell us what other instructions might have been left, we'll be on our way."

The next unfamiliar voice was male, and sounded greatly disapproving. "Simon, have you forgotten your manners entirely? What do you mean speaking to your mother in that tone?"

The doctor's voice was suddenly less emotionless, but that wasn't necessarily an improvement. "I'm sorry, Father. Exactly what sort of tone is appropriate to use when one's parents abandoned one's sibling to medical experimentation and then disowned one for attempting to save her? I can't quite recall which part of the etiquette books covered that!"

There was a gasp of horror from the Tam sibling's mother, and a bit of angry sputtering from the father, but before any member of the little family reunion could get any more snippy and sarcastic at the others, Mal stepped in again. "Now, now. Let's all just be reasonable-like here. Plenty o' hard feelings to go around, I suspect, but we got a few other concerns here."

"And who the devil are you to tell me how I should address my own children?" Mr. Tam spoke in rebuke.

"Captain Malcolm Reynolds. Your kids are on my crew, been with us near the whole time since the doc sprung his sis from that place you put her in," while the tones of everyone else in the conversation were pretty easy to read, Jack really didn't know what Reynolds was thinking from his voice. It was full of very pointed unconcern.

"Well," the anger wasn't gone, but the disdain was overshadowing it now, "No wonder you've lost all sense of decorum, hanging about with trash like this, son."

Jayne could be heard muttering something that must be deeply uncomplimentary, judging from the expressions on the faces of Daniel and Zoe.

"Shouldn't try to make Captain Daddy mad." River's voice cut over any other response, and left all of them silent for a moment. Jack was trying to picture in his head exactly the expressions on all their faces, as it was obvious who she was referring to, but he couldn't recall the girl using that moniker before now.

"River, honey?"

"No! Not home. Won't stay, can't make me!"

"River!" that was a chorus of all three other Tams together, which made everyone in the shuttle listening in exchange curious glances.

"Uh, River, darlin'" Mal's voice was tentative and sounded a bit confounded, "ain't nobody going to try and make you stay behind. There's no need to be clinging onta me so."

Her response was an oddly muffled, "Sorry, Captain."

"The only reason we came here is because we were ordered to by someone holding a friend of ours hostage. So if you were given any instructions for us, we would greatly like to have them. If not, well, Captain Reynolds isn't a terribly patient man, and Jayne, well, he likes to shoot things. I'd hate for them to do anything that might distress the groundskeepers." It seemed that Simon had gotten his snark back.

There was a bit of a ringing silence, before Simon's father replied in a very stiffly measured tone. "We were hoping that now the warrants had been retracted, perhaps you might see reason and come home."

Simon started hotly, "This isn't," and then stopped for a moment, before continuing on, "Do you know what they charged me with, father? Theft. Of government property. Not for breaking into a government installation, or for kidnapping my sister, but for _stealing their property."_

His voice changes from nearly dripping with disdain to something that's almost pleading. "Do you really imagine River would be safe here, in the Core, when they don't even consider her a person?"

"They didn't say anything about instructions. We were just told that our children would be coming with a package delivery," Mrs. Tam said softly, pausing before adding, "Simon are you sure..."

"We couldn't stay even if we wanted to. I'm sorry that you feel guilty now, but we're safer – and happier – where we are." Jack can admire that the young man's voice only wavers a bit. As angry as Simon had been whenever the elder Tams had come up, it was obvious it was from a deep betrayal that he wasn't over. This couldn't be an easy situation for him.

There was a short pause, and then Simon's voice spoke again. "Wait! Open it. That might be our instructions."

Although SG-1 was pretty sure it couldn't be something explosive if they wanted River in one piece, the declaration still made everyone in the shuttle tense. Finally, Gabriel Tam's voice broke the silence. "It's empty. There's nothing in here but … packing materials."

The next transmissions were random sounds of movement followed by the sound of the mule's engine. Mal advised them that they were turning around and heading back out of the estate, but other than that, no one was saying anything.

Jack was mentally running through the number of streets the mule still had to make it through to get back to _Serenity_ when River's voice broke through the quiet, panic in her tone. "Ahead and behind!"

Then, quite clearly, seconds later, was the sound of gunfire. By the time Jayne's torrent of angry-sounding Chinese and Mal's shout of "ZOE!" registered, _Serenity_'s second in command already had the shuttle in the air. It only took SG-1 a few bare seconds longer to start preparing themselves for action.

Zoe calmly told them someone needed to call Inara – who was out shopping as part of their ruse – and tell her to get herself back to the ship post-haste. Daniel took it upon himself to do so while the others broke out their weapons. Zoe concentrated on flying the craft at the fastest speed she could push it to, ignoring the pinging from the radio console. Jack figured that was presumably air traffic control looking for an explanation, though he was more concerned with rechecking his weapons than worrying about it.

The shuttle flew swiftly over the route the group had agreed upon in advance. It couldn't have been more than five minutes before they could see the mule down below. The plus side about being in the shuttle up above was they could easily see the two groups firing on the mule as they flew over the action. The minus side, however, was that the shuttle had no weapons of its own. It made actually doing anything about the situation was somewhat tricky.

In the end, their only real option seemed to be opening up the hatch and bracing themselves around its doorway to shoot out at the ambushers. It felt like a long time to come to that decision, but it couldn't have been much more than a few extra seconds. The people on the ground had only just started to really clue in to the shuttle's presence and look up before SG-1 was firing down on them.

It was obvious almost immediately they hadn't expected any reinforcements to arrive, and particularly not in this manner, as both groups of attackers quickly hurried to get back under cover of their own vehicles and flee the scene. It was hard to tell the status of the four in the mule from up above, as none of them were moving around much. Hopefully that was just because they were all still taking advantage of the limited cover the small vehicle offered. The shuttle had covered the distance in a remarkably short amount of time, but the ambushers were clearly well-armed and had taken those on the mule by surprise.

Zoe just barely waited for the transports on either side of the mule to peel out before setting the shuttle down. The space in the street was only just big enough for it, and likely only that wide because they were still in the better residential neighborhoods. She was up out of her seat in moments, gun at the ready. Somehow she was first out the door despite the fact SG-1 were already arrayed around the open hatch. Without having to even speak about it, Teal'c was out right after Zoe, eyes clearly marking out the directions the ambushers had fled. Carter gathered up what supplies they'd brought in the way of emergency first aid while he and Daniel kept an eye out for anyone the antagonists might have left behind. It was unlikely, as all they'd seen from above had been people fleeing and a few unmoving bodies, but no good would come of being less than cautious.

While scanning the area, and peripherally keeping track of Teal'c and Zoe's movement toward the mule, Jack realized he could see Simon and River moving about, now. They'd all still been hunched down inside the vehicle as the shuttle had landed. Before he could worry that it was only the two of them visible, Jayne was out of the mule and conferring with Zoe, looking entirely unhurt. River was also moving about freely, but Simon seemed stiff. Jack realized why when the doctor turned at an angle and it became apparent he was holding one hand clamped to his opposite shoulder. River lightly jumped out of the vehicle and helped to assist Simon out.

At that point, Reynolds finally made an appearance. Jack had sort of figured the man couldn't be too bad off, since no one in the mule seemed particularly frantic – or particularly upset – so it wasn't a surprise the ship's captain also got out of the mule under his own power, although he was pressing a bloody hand to the side of his head. There was a bit of a conference with some gesticulating between the three senior _Serenity_ crew members, but a word from River broke the powwow up just as Jack was about to tell Sam to go ahead and go over to the mule to either treat the injured, or better yet, get them to agree to leave the scene. The whole group headed for the shuttle, with Reynolds looking somewhat displeased.

As they all filed into the shuttle, where the rest of SG-1 had stayed to keep an eye on the surroundings, Mal gave a terse explanation. "River says they're on the way back with more, we're leaving the mule and getting out of this _fay-fay duh pee-yen_, now."

That's exactly what they did. Sam got to deal with Reynolds and Doctor Tam, both of whom were fussing over who should have their injuries looked over first. Tam had taken a bullet to the outer part of the arm near the shoulder, but Reynolds had taken a serious whack to the head when the doctor's sister had shoved him down out of the way of fire. Simon wondered aloud why they'd been so willing to shoot at the group if they wanted to take River. Daniel was the one who replied, reminding them all that if these mysterious agents had access to a sarcophagus, it would be much easier to just kill them all and revive the ones they wanted. That put a heck of a damper on further conversation. The crew had heard it before, but Jack couldn't blame them for having forgotten; it took a while to get used to the idea that one's enemies could treat death as only a minor inconvenience.

The awkwardness caused them to make the swift trip back to _Serenity_ in nearly unbroken silence – aside from the complaints of the two men having their wounds looked over by Sam and a few additional unanswered squawks from the radio. Their exit from the world was just as swift, though there was a bit of discussion about exactly where they were going to go. For the moment, they just directed themselves promptly away from Osiris.

As soon as the ship was headed out into the black and everyone's wounds had been sufficiently seen to, the whole group gathered once again in the galley. As everyone got settled in around the table, Reynolds continued to stand and addressed them all. "Way I see it, we've got three options here. We can run, but those g_ao yang jong duh goo yang_ still have Wash and will be back after River. Ain't got enough friends left to help us hide out long, neither. Second, we could wait and see what they do now we foiled their trap. Seems to me, though, what we should do is head straight for that signal Sam found on Londinum. Make a play direct for them as are behind this whole mess. Problem is, we'd be doin' it all but blind, and that's not a good option. So I figure we ought to talk some on it."

"It's not a good idea, but you're right. There's really not a better one." Jack conceded when no one else spoke up right away.

They were all tired of waiting and being ordered around. Whoever was behind this would now be aware that a group of people other than the crew they knew about were on _Serenity, _so their advantage in that respect was diminished. The next time they fell into an ambush, the other side would be planning for more people. And if there was a first one, there was bound to be another. No one was seriously considering the cut and run option. It wasn't a good position to be in, but Jack was actually glad to see the crew was just as convinced they couldn't leave a man behind as his own team would be. Even if the situation completely sucked.

There was quite a lot of talking for what seemed a pretty foregone conclusion to O'Neill, but in the end they did decide to head for Londinium. That was their only real lead and they could always divert for elsewhere if reason came up. It was time to stop playing by someone else's rules. SG-1 asked the crew to give them some better idea of what Londinium was like, but only Inara had spent any real time in the Core, and nearly all of that had been on Sihnon.

Carter's ability to trace the messages they'd been receiving back to the terminal they had been sent from was no small feat, but it did not give them too much to go on in terms of how easy it would be to get to the terminal and those who had been using it. Just as bad, _Serenity _was going to be obviously out of place as soon as they broke atmo – if they were even allowed to do so without giving a plausible reason for landing. Again, a fair amount of the discussion revolved around Mal's objections to Inara's involvement, but she was the only one with any kind of ties on the planet that would lend themselves to making a non-suspicious visit.

Again, SG-1 stayed mostly out of the argument, it being fairly obvious the discussion had less to do with real objections and more to do with personal conflicts between the two of them. Most of the rest of the crew seemed to have come to much the same conclusion. Again, the conversation never quite degenerated all the way into a full-blown argument, but it was obviously because both parties were making such a particular effort to keep it from doing so. In the end, backed as she was by the sheer practicalities of the situation, Inara won.

She would make an appointment to visit her Guild house's temple, thereby getting _Serenity_ (under a fake ident Reynolds swore would pass muster) clearance to dock on the planet. It wouldn't have been entirely impossible to sneak in to one of the shadier cities – Londinium was a large, heavily populated world, after all – but it was also very heavily policed, and doing so without any kind of inside contact to shelter them would have been prohibitively difficult. This way, the ship would only be logged as being on the Guild's business, and given the sway held by that organization, record of their landing would not be made widely available. Sure, from what was said so far, the people after River were powerful enough to override those secrecy measures, but they'd have to be actively looking to do so. It wasn't impossible they'd be found out especially since Inara was known to be renting on _Serenity_, but it was unlikely whoever was behind this mess would have any reason to assume they would head directly to Londinium from Osiris.

Carter – with the assistance of River and, oddly, Book – volunteered to look over the public records and try to hack into some of the less public ones to try and figure out exactly where this terminal they'd been contacted from was located. Considering the nature of the transmissions, it seemed likely to be a private terminal within the operations base of whoever they were dealing with – but that wasn't a foregone conclusion. These people could have multiple bases or have anticipated some kind of attempt at a trace. Sure, it had taken both Kaylee and Carter's abilities to do it, but from the sound of the crew's story, the last time someone had come after the girl, they'd made the mistake of grossly underestimating everyone on the crew. These people surely had all kinds of reports about that; Jack figured they should assume these new threats would choose to err in the opposite direction. While she'd been working on the signal-tracing, Carter had also put some time into what would take to make their own access to the Cortex untraceable, or at least nearly so, and they used her theories to mask their latest efforts.

The day before they were due to arrive at the planet – Inara had gotten everything all arranged with the Guild after the crew had discussed things – Carter and River finally had some luck on exactly pinpointing the terminal location. It wouldn't seem like it should be that hard since her trace had located the terminal's exact GPS location and the layout of the city it was in wasn't exactly a secret. However, nearly every building on a Core world had a cortex terminal, and plenty of people carried around portable ones. Furthermore, the best maps of the city were not readily available to the public without a certain amount of registration and hoop jumping. The Alliance wanted to monitor everyone, but they didn't necessarily want anyone else to be able to do so, from what Carter had said.

Still, their security systems were no match for the minds of his genius and _Serenity_'s working together. The terminal was located in a building which was filed on record as being a block of minor offices for Blue Sun Corporation. The name was eminently familiar to the crew, and even with as little of the system as they'd seen, Jack recalled seeing adverts for the company. Apparently it was some kind of amalgamated corporation that sold just about everything.

River wasn't exactly reliable from one day to the next, but that day was the first time that SG-1 saw her go completely loopy. The girl had been a little out of it some days, and had occasionally needed to be prompted a couple times before she replied to someone speaking to her. Now, however, she went into a fit of muttering to herself and rocking back and forth, saying little that was intelligible beyond a short rhyme about blue hands. It sent her brother into an equal tizzy of hovering and trying to medicate her somehow. The rest of the crew was not thrilled, but not quite as obviously distressed. There was some concern that the girl would still be loopy while they tried to pull off whatever plan they managed to come up with. It didn't end up being true, but it did take more than a full day from when they discovered the terminal to when they made landing for her to calm down again.

For SG-1, this new experience of watching the poor girl apparently unable to control herself wasn't any fun, but the crew of the ship not seeming terribly surprised helped somewhat. If she'd been this bad before, surely it was something she would eventually move through. Seeing River back to herself a few hours after Teal'c had been the one to handle the landing of the ship on Londinium helped even more. Mal and Zoe both had some experience with piloting the ship and possibly could have handled it well enough, but Teal'c was by far the most experienced pilot aboard, and he had volunteered to assist. The last thing they needed was to draw suspicion with a less than smooth landing on such a populated planet. According to Reynolds, port control might just be bored and officious enough to investigate.

Their pre-planning had gotten them as far as a landing berth on Londinium, with Inara having checked in with the local chapter of the Companion's Guild to get them an open slot at one of the planet's least reputable docks. Depending on how long their next step took, she might actually make multiple visits to the House to justify the extension of their stay, but luckily the Guild did not require any kind of preset schedule for such appointments. That was a minor check in their positive column. Unfortunately, it was just about the only one.

With Osiris, they had banked on the belief that whoever was behind this would not want to bring it into the public's eye. Even when they'd originally been after River, very little detail had been released with her warrant. Now, post-Miranda and all the fallout that had accompanied the broadcast, it seemed reasonable to believe whoever was pulling their strings would be even less likely want to draw undue attention, so they hadn't worried much about hiding their presence. That theory was supported by a lack of reports on the Cortex now about the incident on Osiris – they'd taken the chance to check, stopping over at a station a little bit out of their way.

Now, they needed to avoid detection altogether, as any alerts they pinged would be as likely to tip off the blackmailers as well as the local authorities. They could not afford to be picked up infiltrating the building or by the local sensors or Fed patrols. So they needed some better idea of how to maneuver around the location they needed to investigate, but there wasn't a lot of experience on _Serenity_ with skulking about the Core planets. Simon and River were from there, but River was shaken by the mere mention of Blue Sun, and Simon had been very focused on his sister during his only experience in the realm of the covert. It was well out of Kaylee and Jayne's expertise to be subtle enough, and Mal and Zoe had always avoided the Core, leaving them only slightly more familiar with it than SG-1 themselves. Which left Book.

It was odd Book got his own category, but the man that they'd been told was some kind of religious devotee called a Shepherd was an enigma. He conducted himself as a man of God would, but even in the short time since he'd been back with the crew it was obvious he knew things no monastery Jack had ever heard of would teach. The deftness he showed in avoiding questions about that knowledge was also suspicious in its own right. It was obvious this was nothing new to the crew, and equally clear they had no explanation for it, either. Jack had found himself more than a little tempted to try and confront the man and get some answers, but Reynolds had apparently anticipated that and warned him off. He could admit to a grudging respect for the man stepping in to protect one of his own, but it was still a frustrating mystery. If they knew the man's background, they'd know whether he could be of more help or not.

So far the older man had said very little during their planning sessions, though he sat in on all of them. Of course, it was stretching it more than a bit to call them planning sessions, as so far they had mostly consisted of sitting around and determining what wouldn't work. Mal was pushing for them to just shove their way in and shoot their way out – it seemed to be his primary strategy for a lot of things. Which, to be fair, was something SG-1 found themselves doing a frequent percentage of the time, too, but they did usually try to plan better when it was something that could go so easily wrong like this could. Unfortunately, they just didn't have the information.

Between the efforts of Sam, Kaylee, and River, they were able to sneak their way into the local systems to get a better idea of the security setup of both the city and the offices themselves. Mostly what that did was verify there really was an obscene amount of security on Core planets. The specific facility they needed to get inside was closed to the public entirely, and not only required employee cards, but matching citizen ident cards, fingerprint and retinal scans, and voice verification – just to get in the door of the main building. There were a number of security stations between that outer door and the offices and labs where they might actually find some answers.

A couple of scenarios occurred to them at that point. Waylaying an employee and using them to get in, or taking their card and having one of their geniuses try and duplicate new ones that would get them in, or even simply overriding the security with their technical know-how. The problem was there were so many security checkpoints, and the list of people allowed in the building was so few they'd be likely to be noticed fairly quickly no matter what they tried.

In the end, it was a combination of Sam and Kaylee that came up with a plan they decided on. It wasn't foolproof, but no plan was, and with the situation they were up against, the best they could hope for was 'not terrible' really. The group had managed to get themselves access to both the building's security servers and the electronic grid of the city. The timing would be a little tricky, but despite all the redundancies and backups, Sam thought it would be possible to unlock all the security stations at once and if they knocked out the power immediately thereafter, keep them from going back up long enough for a group of them to get all the way inside.

The biggest problem was that it wasn't a small building. They had looked at what little was publicly available in terms of schematics, but taking into account what they were there to attempt to find, assuming those were actually accurate would be foolhardy. Considering the relative ease – definitely relative, as it had taken the three brilliant women working together over several days – with which they had accessed the security for the building, it did occur to them to attempt to access the place's sensitive files remotely. Doing so would make getting in and out much easier and more importantly, possibly verify there was something there worth going in after. Unfortunately, when they made the attempt they learned that while the security on their security might be somewhat lacking, they were a lot more careful with files that contained actual information.

It was Book's statement about Sam and Kaylee's plan being their best option that seemed to seal the deal for the _Serenity_ crew, and after that point the discussion turned more from what they were going to do to when they were going to do it, and exactly who was going to be involved. Jayne loudly voiced his willingness to not be involved since he "weren't gettin' paid" despite his love of shooting things.

Sam going along seemed a necessary choice; she was the best at manipulating technology, even if the Alliance systems were different than the ones she was used to. Jack liked the crew of _Serenity_, he really did. He just wasn't quite sure how much he liked the idea of sending only part of his team off with them into danger. Of course, the bigger a team they sent, the easier it would be for them to be spotted and caught. Although it did occur to him that if they sent more people in separate teams, they could search a greater area faster.

When it came time to go in, that necessity of a faster search took priority. His geeks were split between the two teams – it made sense with them being the biggest experts on alien technology. Teal'c knew a great deal about Goa'uld tech, but was a far greater asset as the assault part of a team and his more practical knowledge of the tech would mesh well with Daniel's ability to recognize, but not always manipulate it. Meanwhile, it was also a good idea to separate Carter and Teal'c so that each team had a member capable of sensing Goa'uld possession. That put Jack himself on the team with Carter. A great deal of the_ Serenity_ crew was automatically excluded. Kaylee might be a genius with machines, but she didn't handle violence well, Simon would only be needed if things went very wrong, Inara would be entirely out of her element, and after the way River had reacted to the mere mention of Blue Sun, she couldn't be risked. Even if they'd wanted her along, as the one they were after, it didn't make sense to risk her.

To the surprise of SG-1, Book volunteered to go along, although he looked mildly uneasy at the prospect. To hear the crew tell it, the man was ridiculously proficient with firearms for a religious devotee, but he was a pacifist. Apparently this wasn't the first situation that had come up where he'd been willing to set those morals partially to one side to assist the crew. Zoe and Mal had taken it as given they were going along. At the beginning of the week, Jack might have protested that. It had taken a good long time for Zoe to forgive Mal for not telling her about the message concerning her husband immediately. He'd never actually seen the two of them talk it out, but somewhere between their arrival back on the ship and now, their relationship had shifted back to how it had been when SG-1 first encountered the crew. Also, despite his earlier protestations, Jayne had acted oddly offended when he wasn't included in their plans and was "to be left behind with the womenfolk" who he asserted "included the Doc."

While they had been doing what they could in the way of planning, Inara had finally made the time to spend a couple days worth of time visiting the local Guild House that was their ostensible cover for landing on the planet. Jack didn't think any of them really held out much hope they would manage to get in and out and away from Londinium without being identified, but it couldn't hurt to make sure their legitimate reason for docking would actually hold up to scrutiny with the locals after the fact if they did somehow perform that miracle.

Finally, when Inara called in to tell them she was on her way back to the ship, they were ready to make their gambit. River and Kaylee would deal with the shut downs they had planned to facilitate their entry from aboard _Serenity. _The two teams ended up consisting of Daniel, Teal'c, Reynolds, and Jayne in one group and himself, Carter, Zoe and Book in the other. They'd specifically chosen a day that was some kind of minor Alliance celebration in the hopes it would mean less people would be on the premises.

The first part of the plan seemed to go as well as could be expected. They arrived, and moments later, the outer door was unlocked. Between their lack of hoop jumping to get through, and the fact that the power went out mere seconds later, they were able to subdue the single human guard without incident before he could set off any alarms. A couple more outermost doors, and they were into the main part of the complex. At that point, the two teams split apart for different destinations. The team with Reynolds was heading to the offices, in the hopes of finding any kind of documentation as to what was going on or any other facilities where _Serenity_'s pilot might be located if they turned up no sign of him here. It was also where the terminal they'd pinpointed was located. Turning out the power and then trying to access their files wasn't as crazy as it sounded; this strange future had some kind of digital paper that was used for most documents. Carter found it completely fascinating. Jack was just glad it meant they wouldn't have to wait for the power to come back on to access information. Meanwhile, his team was headed for the labs. It seemed like the most likely place to find the missing pilot, the suspected sarcophagus, or any other obviously Goa'uld technology that the Alliance might have its hands on.

They seemed to have chosen well in their decision to come in on a holiday, as the place felt very empty, full of dark offices and unattended desks. They avoided a few guards, and easily bypassed a man loudly cursing to himself about the power outage the building was currently experiencing, but otherwise they didn't run into anyone. Which was a good thing, certainly, it was just that it was also exactly the kind of luck Jack didn't trust not to suddenly turn fubar.

The place continued to be nearly deserted – until they got to the actual labs. There were more people down here, though they were preoccupied and milling about with flashlights, grumbling about the lights being out. It was still a small group, though, and they were all gathered together in a main vestibule. Their grumbling to one another did not sound remotely suspicious, just annoyed. That made them possible, if not entirely easy, to bypass. There were several corridors leading off of that main area, and his group ducked stealthily into the first one to the left.

Unlike the security locks to get into the building, the doors down here were all equipped with simple deadbolts on the outside. Between the doors that locked from the outside and the tiny observation windows located in them, it was obvious these rooms were used to keep experimental subjects of the human variety around to continue the experiments – whether they wanted to or not. Book confirmed that the rooms inside looked very much like what little he could remember from his time as a captive, but they were so utterly nondescript it didn't necessarily mean anything.

The first hallway ended up containing nothing more than a row on either side of identical, empty rooms. Their search was as quick and as quiet as they could make it, and the task was made considerably more stealthy by the barred windows at the back of each room letting in light. Back on _Serenity_ River and Kaylee would be working to keep the power down for as long as possible by sabotaging attempts to get it back up again, but that was only going to work for so long.

The second hallway had the labs portion of the labs. Each of the rooms had a complex and bewildering array of equipment. Luckily, they had Carter and she could tell with little more than a glance if what was present was simply Alliance tech or not. There were five rooms in the hallway, and they cleared the first two with no comment from Carter. In the third one, however, she paused in front of something on a workbench he couldn't see from his position near the door before coming back over and simply saying one word. "Goa'uld."

He looked to her for clarification, and she whispered, "A component, not sure of what, but there's definitely Goa'uld writing on it and it uses crystal technology, which the Alliance doesn't otherwise seem to have." That still left them with the same two open options – either the Alliance had stumbled across an unknown quantity of Goa'uld tech, or there was at least one Goa'uld somewhere in the Alliance.

True, it wouldn't exactly be in the nature of the average false god to be playing human rather than absolute ruler, but it had happened before. Particularly when they were afraid of a bigger Goa'uld or had their own reasons for being stealthy. Like Seth, or Nirrti.

The fourth room contained the sarcophagus. They checked inside, but there was no one home. Unfortunately, while they were worried about who might come out of the sarcophagus, their luck finally ran out and the power flickered back on. There was a short but intense debate about whether or not to destroy the sarcophagus. They weren't going to make their way out of here by stealth at this point, but they'd probably get further if they didn't draw attention to themselves by blowing things up.

Unfortunately, the electricity coming back on wasn't the only part of their luck to come up dry. When they made their way back into the hall with the intention of glancing into the final room, they didn't even get to the door before a small sound back from the direction of the hub had them turning around to come face to face with the heretofore mostly absent security force. In fact, a large enough group of them to just outnumber their small band, and worse, they were all armed, with their weapons up and aimed.

"Hi guys!" Jack said brightly and waved jauntily. Because really, what else could you do?


	13. Not Exactly Wacky Fun

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**Chapter Thirteen: Not Exactly Wacky Fun**

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They found themselves promptly stripped of weapons and herded back down the first hallway filled with cells, the whole area now starkly illuminated compared to the semi-darkness of before. The whole group was unceremoniously shoved into one of the subject rooms together. Jack had rather expected they'd be split up or at least that someone would be back in to question them right away, but instead they were left to sit idle as the minutes ticked by.

Jack passed the time by considering whether it was because they had to call some high muckety-muck in on his day off to question them or because they were busy chasing down Reynolds and the other half of SG-1. He was still weighing the probabilities when someone finally opened the door.

The man that walked in was bald and wearing a very stuffy looking suit. Also, stranger even than his complete lack of expression was the fact he was wearing blue gloves on his hands. How weird. It took a moment for the realization to click, but as the door was shutting behind him at a gesture to someone out of sight, River's words over the past few days came back "_two by two, hands of blue"_ and he had to wonder if there was another guy like this one out there. Or if she just meant one guy with two hands. He was drawn out of the whimsical contemplation by the man finally speaking.

"Zoe Washburne. Derrial Book." He looked at either of them as he spoke, and his expression remained utterly blank and his voice bland as he asked, "But who are the two of you?"

"Han Solo and Leia Organa," Jack told him, offhandedly.

"I very much doubt that is the truth. Your names are irrelevant. The interesting thing is that you are not part of the Alliance ident databases. Not even the hidden ones, which makes you very peculiar indeed."

"I'm not sure I like you calling us peculiar. It's a bit insulting, really, isn't it, Leia?"

Carter rolled her eyes at him, but didn't say anything.

"No matter. We'll find out soon enough. Where is _The __Serenity _and River Tam_?_"

"It's just _Serenity_. You could at least get the name of the ship right. Besides, why would we know? Maybe these two decided to join our team instead. Reynolds is a bit of a dimwit, really." Jack was pretty sure his reaction to being questioned was only going to lead to discovering what the local equivalent of the Goa'uld pain stick was, but it was what he did.

Except his expectations went strangely unfulfilled. Usually even the most stoic Jaffa gave him at least a disgruntled expression, but this guy apparently didn't do expressions, which was just plain disappointing. He didn't seem to be in any great hurry, either, as once it became apparent that no one was volunteering information, he didn't bother to say anything further – no questions, no threats. Pretty obvious the guy was waiting on something, but what was uncertain. Perhaps the partner that River's rhyme had implied? He tried to get some idea of what to expect from these guys from glances at the two _Serenity_ crew members, but neither of them were giving anything away in their expressions if they did know anything.

The weird guy just stood there, staring at them. It was kinda freaking Jack out a bit. Just about the time that he was gonna have another go at 'piss off the bad guy by playing stupid,' there was a knock on the door. He expected lackeys with an update, or another blue handed guy. What he got was the sight of the man enveloped in a zat blast. The door opened further to reveal the other half of their infiltration team.

Zoe interrupted the post-body dropping silence with, "Took you long enough, sir. Any longer and we might've given serious thought to takin' the Colonel up on his offer to join their team instead."

Reynolds looked put out and sputtered a bit while Daniel handed the group back their weapons.

"Any luck in the offices?" Sam asked, as they geared back up.

"Not as such. Grabbed a handful of encrypted files for you ladies to have a gander at back on the boat, but no obvious signs of our missin' pilot. Take it your'n was no better?" Reynolds replied, his attention half on them and half back into the corridor.

"Ya think? Didn't quite finish our search, and there were a bunch of people loitering about – speaking of which, how did you get in here so quietly?"

"The security forces cleared this area of all but two guards, O'Neill." Teal'c replied.

"You check any other rooms down here?" Jack asked, as they all began to move out of the room.

"We came down the hallway with the guards, Jack. It seemed the sensible thing at the time," Daniel said, with only a hint of sarcasm.

"How much time you figure we have before we're surrounded down here?" Jack didn't wait for an answer, "Yeah, right." He quickly lead the way back out to the main hub, and pointed out the two branching hallways that they hadn't searched yet. He took his own group back down to investigate the fifth room down the hallway they'd been in when they were caught. They weren't going to get another chance to search the place, so this was it. As much as it would have probably been a better idea to cut and run immediately, he didn't think there was a chance the _Serenity_ crew would go for that with their pilot's life and freedom on the line and this their only lead. Jack couldn't blame them for it, either.

The final room in the hall of disconnected labs was kept dark, unlike the others, which had been brightly lit. Jack had kind of hoped all they would find in this complex would be Reynold's missing pilot and the sarcophagus. Maybe some other bits of Goa'uld technological flotsam, perhaps some naqahdah. What they found in that last room was far, far worse. Carter found a light switch and turned the lights up to reveal a tank of Goa'uld larvae.

He didn't have to say a word to Carter before she was digging in her vest for C-4. "Are those..." Book asked.

"Icky baby Goa'uld. Yes."

They stopped to rig the sarcophagus as well on their way back up the hallway as well. They'd just gotten back to the hub and were at the point of trying the remaining hallway when they heard the discharge of a gun from that direction, and they rushed to rejoin the others without exchanging a word.

By the time they reached the other group, they were helping prop up the man O'Neill recognized from the message Reynolds had received in the middle of the hallway. Specifically, Reynolds and Jayne were helping him stay upright as he looked too beat up and woozy to manage it himself. A lone man in a lab coat sprawled behind them, halfway out of a room, his lack of movement and the spreading pool of blood below him indicating clearly enough what had happened.

"Wait! Carter," he barked at his second, and the blonde woman quickly made her way almost close enough to touch the man.

"I don't feel anything, sir."

Jack sighed in relief. He really hadn't wanted to have to try and deal with _Serenity_'s crew if the man had been Goa'ulded. Daniel and Teal'c immediately picked up on what Carter had done and why. "O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired.

"Found a tank of symbiotes back there," Jack responded grimly. "Got it rigged to blow, figure we'll wait 'til we can use the distraction."

"You're talkin' about them creepy critters what take over a man's brain?" Jayne asked with equal parts fear and disgust.

"Yup. We found a worryingly large batch of immature ones."

"It is strange then that we have not yet encountered any Jaffa, O'Neill. Symbiotes do not mature well without going through the process of incubation."

"I don't much like it either, Teal'c, but we'll worry about it once we're out of here."

They made it back two floors towards the exit before the shooting started. It wasn't easy, getting back out of the building, but there still was only a skeleton of the usual compliment of people on a regular day, and the group managed to avoid several patrols before they had no choice but confrontation. Meanwhile, setting off the explosives they had planted distracted a large portion of the remaining security forces for a few very crucial minutes.

Ultimately the biggest impediment to their escape was the pilot they'd come to rescue. It wasn't immediately obvious what all was wrong with the man - that'd have to wait for Simon back on the ship - but he looked sickly and bruised and wasn't up to walking out on his own power, which tied up at least one of their weapons. Thankfully, SG-1 was used to being outnumbered and handicapped, and it didn't exactly seem to be a new situation to Reynold's crew, either.

The last twenty minutes or so of their escape was a complete blur of rushing down corridors and shooting anything that moved. There was also a bit of additional destruction when they had to blow the outer doors that had been put under lock down. Even with the limited security forces present, it was hectic and nerve-wracking, but they made it back out of the building in decent time and with everyone still in one piece. Better yet, they managed to get back on the ship and take off before any larger alert went out – possibly because the crew hadn't been entirely sure one would be sent because of the secrecy.

Once they were back in the sky, they made haste to get the heck out of the Core as fast as possible. It was a couple of days before all of them felt reasonably confident they weren't being followed. The reunion of the crew with Zoe's husband was even more enthusiastic than it had been when they welcomed back Book. Simon gave the man a once over, and said there didn't seem to be anything that he could specifically diagnose wrong with him aside from some fairly minor physical trauma on top of dehydration and fatigue. After he'd been given a few days to rest, SG-1 asked him similar questions to those they'd asked Book, but unfortunately he told almost exactly the same story the Shepherd had.

The plus side was that _Serenity_ had all of her people back, and they were obviously all in better spirits because of it. Unfortunately, SG-1 was less happy. Although the Alliance with Goa'uld tech would not have been a great outcome either, the fact that some of the damn snakes themselves were clearly here was a far less welcome realization. Not to mention that this wasn't their usual M.O., so there had to be some kind of deeper plan they'd stumbled onto the edges of. What that could be, none of them really had an idea, and that was not something Jack liked at all. Their usual antics were bad enough, but the worst stuff always came when some particularly enterprising Goa'uld actually came up with a new idea for galactic domination.

All they really knew was the Goa'uld were involved in the Alliance somehow, and possibly involved with the program that had created - and definitely involved with the people who now wanted - River. None of that was much to go on when it came to planning what to do next. Plus Jack wasn't even sure if the _Serenity _crew was going to be entirely willing to help them any further now that they had all their own people back. True, they were almost certain to come after River again, but without any leverage, well, it wasn't a small system they lived in. It'd probably be easy enough for someone like Reynolds to get the ship as lost as he wanted it to be, and the man had already started making noises asking how long they'd be hanging about within a couple days of Wash's rescue.

In addition to the Goa'uld they were dealing with being unpredictable because hiding behind the Alliance was somewhat unprecedented, there were other problematical considerations to this situation. Normally when they sought out a Goa'uld, the snakehead had an obvious stronghold or three that they could check, the Tok'ra were keeping an eye on them – there was usually something that acted as the equivalent of a giant neon sign saying 'Goa'uld here'. Here, they'd only found two sites with anything obviously out of place, and they'd been all over the main portions of that office building and the site on Persephone, despite the naquadah readings and high number of guards, simply hadn't been large enough for any kind of system-spanning operation. Without any easier way in or out of the place, and the probability of drawing the attention of all of the local Alliance military on top of the Goa'uld, it wasn't a very feasible lead to explore.

Attempts to question either of the Tam siblings about the place River had been taken as part of the fake academy plot turned up effectively nothing. River simply freaked out again. Her brother, unfortunately, didn't know anything helpful. The site Simon knew of had been abandoned within a week of River's escape and the best efforts of their combined minds couldn't find any traces of where it might have been relocated to. The rest of the system contained a prohibitively large number of planets and moons that were densely populated, even if they could realistically assume that their quarry was probably sticking to the Core.

Over a span of a few weeks while _Serenity_ went back to business as usual, SG-1 went back and forth over those underlying problems of where to go from here. Finally, O'Neill talked the crew into taking another swing by to report back in to the SGC. When detailing the problems to General Hammond over the video link, the point of what to do next became moot. There had already been a few questions about the reasonableness of the base's frontline team being deployed off for an indeterminate amount of time into a place with very limited communication. The absolute lack of any idea of what to do next clinched it. They were to leave a communicator with the _Serenity_ crew and express a willingness to return if anything further turned up, but aside from that, the General ordered them to tie this one off and come home already.

It wasn't entirely a surprise that they were being called back, although while wrapped up in the mission Jack hadn't really considered it might happen quite so soon. Orders were orders though, and so SG-1 made their goodbyes to the crew of _Serenity _and stepped back through the wormhole to the SGC. Oh, was it good to be back home, Jack's main thought was, even if they did have to take the ol' trip down to the infirmary.

After they gave their briefings and reports about their sojourn in the Allied planets system with the crew of the Firefly, they figured the mission to be effectively over and done with. They'd formed a bit of a bond with the crew, so they did think about them from time to time over the next few months, but for the most part, SG-1 was settled into doing what they needed to do for the new missions that came up in the schedule for them. They'd keep a weather eye on that part of the universe, and Hammond had sent out a warning to the Tok'ra about what they knew as soon as he'd managed to contact them, but for now SG-1 was back to looking out for Earth.

They did think it was possible they would hear back from the crew at some point, but Jack and the others kind of hoped they wouldn't. _Serenity_ had all their people back and a whole system of planets with millions of inhabitants to get lost among. If the Goa'uld involved in the system – whatever they were up to – had stayed hidden this long, hopefully they would let the crew go in favor of keeping things as they were. Although that wasn't to say it didn't make him leery to leave that whole mess a great big lingering question mark of unfinished business. Generally, when Goa'uld got up to anything out of the ordinary, it meant bad things for Earth and her allies somewhere down the line. Still, they couldn't stay in the system indefinitely, and Earth itself had to be their priority.

Carter did spend a little time with the data crystals they had acquired during their retrieval mission on Londinum, but they weren't as helpful as she had hoped. The only thing they really added to the SGC's knowledge was that the Goa'uld were less involved with the Alliance itself as they seemed to be involved behind the scenes of the Blue Sun Corporation. Unfortunately, that company was so huge and spread so widely across the system it didn't really change the overall picture any; it wouldn't be any help in pinpointing the snakeheads' possible bases without more information.

Although they all shared the feeling of being undecided about whether they wanted _Serenity_ to get away unhindered and not hear from them again or to call up and say they'd discovered a lead somewhere that could take them to the snakeheads, SG-1 looked back on the adventure as one of their fondest. So several months later when the team was hanging around the SGC between missions and there was an unauthorized incoming wormhole with the code they'd left for _Serenity _to contact them, SG-1 was interested to see their friends and hopeful this visit might lead to the SGC being able to scratch the big question mark by the Alliance off their potential enemies list. The pleasant feeling of excitement was pretty quickly dashed almost immediately after they opened the iris, though.

There was a pause of several minutes before the wormhole rippled, just enough to cause those in the control room to start frowning in concern. The members of the _Serenity_ crew that came stumbling through the orifice weren't being chased by bullets, but they looked pretty seriously banged up and a few of them were supporting each other. Zoe was limping with a bloody rag tied around one leg, supported between her husband with a bandaged head and Book. Jayne was also limping and looked bloody in a couple of other places, but was stubbornly refusing any assistance to get down the ramp. Kaylee was holding her arm against her body, looking pained and teary. Inara walked through behind them all, looking relatively unharmed. The wormhole shut down behind her. There was no sign of Captain Reynolds or the Tam siblings.

The second the first of them had appeared, the General had made the call down to the infirmary for a medical team. With the assistance of said team, SG-1 escorted the distressed-looking crew down to the infirmary to get treatment and explain what had happened to them. Once the various members had been tended to by the competent staff, SG-1 asked for explanation. There was a bit of confusion since at first several of the crew started talking over one another when confronted with the prospect of someone to tell. Eventually Zoe took charge and calmly related their story.

Apparently, things had been fine for several months – there had been no more messages, and although _Serenity_ had been careful about letting anyone aside from the people they were dealing with on an individual job know where they were and where they would be, they found no indication anyone was looking for them. Then, four days ago, when the crew had just come back from a job and were enjoying the aftermath of their happily gunplay-free meet, they had been ambushed in the ship. The crew had done their best to fight back, but they had been caught entirely by surprise.

They'd all done their best to resist against what were clearly highly trained fighters, but eventually all of the crew here had ended up being shot with knockout darts and woken up sometime later. Their impression of the events of the ambush were all a little fuzzy because of the speed with which it had taken place. The crew had been separated in various parts of the ship when the attack had gone down, and they each related what little they knew. That mostly amounted to a consensus the attackers had been highly trained, probably military, and only seemed concerned about not injuring those who had been near the Tam siblings.

Much to the distress of the rest of the crew, Jayne and Zoe both agreed that Mal was probably dead. The captain had been shot at least twice before any of them were knocked out, and hadn't been looking too good.

Kaylee spoke up in distressed objection, suggesting that they must be wrong. "Then why'd they take the Cap'n with 'em?"

"Couldn't they use that, box-thingy they used on the Shepherd and the little man?" Jayne asked, suddenly interested in the conversation he'd only seemed to be paying nominal attention to. There was a great deal of excitement at that speculation from several of the crew for a moment.

"We blew it up on our way out of their headquarters," Sam reminded them all, gently.

"They could have another one, couldn't they?" the little mechanic insisted stubbornly.

"We must hope they do not, Kaylee Frye. A second sarcophagus would indicate a second powerful Goa'uld's involvement. That would not bode well for any of us." Teal'c imparted.

In the aftermath, the crew had done their best to try and figure out who had come and gone from the ship docks around _Serenity_ that day, but neither the contacts that the crew nor Inara could access had been able to get them any leads as to who had landed and taken off, let alone anything to indicate where their people had been taken. They did find out that the offices on Londinium they'd broken into the last time had since been emptied out and put up for sale.

With no better options, they'd decided to call SG-1 for help. Once they knew what little the crew knew, SG-1 adjourned to the briefing room to discuss their options. They had given up just a few months ago because SG-1 had no further leads to follow in the crew's home system to try and locate the Goa'uld running things, and this wasn't news they could use to that purpose either. Therefore the situation didn't seem so terribly promising, but the least they could do was talk it out.

They were just about at the point where Jack figured Hammond was going to suggest there was nothing they could really do when Daniel brought up a pertinent point. A large part of the problem with SG-1 heading off to the Alliance system to help originally was that they would be so far from help and vulnerable if something went wrong. Getting a ship had been out of the question before, since there had been no real incentive for their allies to get involved. Now, with concrete knowledge there was a Goa'uld presence in that system, it was possible they might be able to wrangle the use of a tel'tak from the Tok'ra.

Privately, Jack figured that was expecting a bit much, since their so-called allies only seemed to be interested in recruiting SG-1 to do things for them and not the other way around, but it couldn't hurt to ask. As friends, he figured they owed the _Serenity_ crew at least that much effort. Sam and Daniel got the fun job of calling up the Tok'ra while he went down to see about finding the less injured parts of _Serenity's_ crew quarters for the interim. He didn't really figure the crew would be any more eager to leave the sides of their compatriots than SG-1 was when one of their own was injured, but hopefully they'd see the sense of not clogging up the base's infirmary.

As he expected, the crew was still huddled tightly around the beds containing Zoe, Wash, and Jayne. They didn't look any less worried than they had when they'd come stumbling through the wormhole onto the base. He supposed he shouldn't expect them to, really. This wasn't their home and three of their team were at best in the hands of an enemy they knew little about. Then the allies they'd gone to for help had not immediately had any ideas either. O'Neill could definitely sympathize. He ambled over to join what was obviously an ongoing conversation.

Kaylee was the one speaking, "Sure they was after Simon and River, but why take him, live or not? Why'd they leave the rest of us?" It was clear no one wanted to answer the confused-looking mechanic's question. While Kaylee was a joy to be around, Jack couldn't help but be glad that his own team didn't contain anyone so naïve. Considering the story the crew had told about an Operative of their parliament attempting to retrieve River and getting run around the whole system by Captain Reynolds, it wasn't so surprising to him the man had gone missing with the Tam siblings. Goa'uld tended to get very offended by people who got in their way like that. Ask any of the System Lords about SG-1, for instance.

It was a bit surprising the rest of them had been let go, but Teal'c and Sam as well as Janet's staff had surreptitiously confirmed that none of the crew were harboring Goa'uld. It could be the rest of the crew had been let go in the hope of luring back in SG-1, although Jack doubted the Goa'uld in question knew that was who they were after. That creepy fellow with the blue gloves had been far too interested in Sam and himself. Even without knowing who _Serenity_'s allies were, any force that knew about River and had tried to rescue parts of the crew before was probably considered a threat.

He just hoped for the sake of the crew that they were only planning to kill or imprison the missing people, rather than put snakes in their heads. Considering the infant Goa'uld that they'd found in that facility, he couldn't help but worry. Even after all their experience, the idea of having to take out their own didn't set well with anyone he knew at the SGC. The crew of _Serenity? _He really didn't know if they'd be able to deal with it. They hadn't really objected to SG-1's tales of mind controlling aliens, but listening to someone tell the story and actually believing it was a truth that could affect you, well, those were two different things, sometimes, no matter how cautious a person normally was.

Jack gave a little cough to alert them to his presence and updated the _Serenity_ people on their decision to attempt to wrangle the assistance of one of their allies. It took a moment to explain to them exactly why things would be so much easier if they had a ship – considering the crew had a ship of their own, after all. Once he explained about the stealth and hyperdrive capabilities of Goa'uld ships, however, they were more understanding of the issue – and Kaylee was obviously distracted from her distress by intrigue as to how any of that might work.

It did take a little coaxing, but he eventually talked the loitering members of the crew into leaving the infirmary for temporary quarters. He figured it probably helped they'd already stayed here on the base once before and had developed a certain amount of trust in the SGC and SG-1 through their past interactions.

It usually took a while for the Tok'ra to respond to a message left at the last coordinates the friendly snakeheads had given them as a communication point. Although any situation that involved a potential rescue meant time was of the essence, in this case they were also somewhat dependent upon how soon the most injured members of _Serenity's _crew would be up to leaving the infirmary. None of them were in too terribly bad shape, but so far as Jack was concerned Dr. Fraiser had some very strange ideas about how long people should be kept in the infirmary sometimes.

Quite unexpectedly, it was only a couple of hours before they got a call back from the Tok'ra. They weren't absolutely useless as allies, but Jack hadn't really been able to hope for much in the way of assistance from them. They always did seem to have their heads stuck too far up their own … business … to care about what the SGC might need. They were in even better luck, though, as Jacob was the one to come through the wormhole to talk to them. Things always did seem to go much better with their allies when Sam's dad was involved, no question. Even when it sent them to Netu.

They exchanged the usual pleasantries before heading up to the briefing room where SG-1 and the General quickly summarized the most recent details SG-1 had learned about the Alliance system and its shadowy Goa'uld involvement. Jacob told them the Tok'ra had been entirely unaware of the situation before SG-1's original message on the subject when the team had returned from the system a few months ago. Even as much as he would have ranted about it, Jack had been secretly holding back a little hope that the Tok'ra actually had looked into it and knew all the particulars but just hadn't mentioned it because they generally didn't tell the SGC anything – until _after_ it bit them in the ass.

As nice as it might have been to have a better idea what was going on – assuming what was going on wasn't catastrophic and too late to stop, of course – the fact the Tok'ra knew absolutely nothing of the situation had quite obviously grabbed the attention of the normally slow to action leadership of their allies. When SG-1's second message had come through asking for assistance on another mission to the system, the Tok'ra High Council had still been considering what operative to send there in light of the SGC's previous message. Jacob and Selmak were both very confident that they would be able to get permission to take a tel'tak on a scouting mission to the system with SG-1 as backup. He'd have to go back and confirm the arrangement first, but the two of them definitely shared SG-1's impression that whenever a Goa'uld got a new idea, usually it meant something unusually bad was in the works. It would also be easier to get backing because the pair of them had just come back from a successful sabotage mission and were in exceedingly good graces with the Tok'ra leaders just now.

Jacob/Selmak only spent a couple of hours on the base before heading back through the wormhole to confer with the rest of the Tok'ra. A little while after he'd gone, Jack went back down to check on the members of _Serenity's_ crew. He didn't figure they'd be getting up to any trouble, but it couldn't hurt to check in and update them on the fact that the SGC was trying their best to move things along to do something. He checked first at the rooms they'd been assigned, but as he'd suspected the others had all gathered back in the infirmary anyway. He filled them in on the Tok'ra having contacted them and seeming willing to help, and asked how they were doing.

Wash had a bit of a concussion, and was being monitored for that, while his wife had taken a bullet to the leg and was supposed to be off her feet. Likewise, Jayne had a wound in both one leg and the opposite shoulder. If the Tok'ra came back with an answer in any kind of reasonable time frame, perhaps they could have Selmak have a go with the healing device before they headed out.

They ended up having him do exactly that when he returned nearly a week later. By that time, the whole crew of _Serenity_ had been moved into guest quarters and were getting particularly antsy about wanting to be out doing something to retrieve their missing people. They'd come looking for help from SG-1, but had expected a more immediate response, though seeing as they didn't have any better idea of what was going on or where to look, their frustration was as much with their own helplessness as anything.

After brief introductions had been made, and the remaining injuries to the crew had been healed, they all reconvened in the briefing room with General Hammond to discuss plans. They had waited until this more formal conversation to introduce Selmak to the crew, and the reactions around the table were almost as fun as the ones to Thor's appearance had been.

"Just gorram creepy," Jayne muttered, pretty much summing up how Jack felt, strangely. Yeah, he liked Selmak over any other snake they ever dealt with, but it was still just not right - the whole glowy eyes and boom-y voice bit.

The crew had left their ship sealed up and parked out on Haven, near the Gate. There was some question of going back through for it from them, but that really didn't make a whole lot of sense. The plan was to head off to a world where the Tok'ra had stashed a tel'tak for their use, and to fly that to the Alliance's system of planets. Arranging the use of the ship was what had caused the majority of the delay, as apparently most of their craft were assigned on operations elsewhere. Between its hyperdrive, stealth capacity, weapons, and most importantly, its advanced sensors, it was going to be the best place to launch their operation from. Not to mention that _Serenity_ was obviously known to the shadowy players behind this whole business, and would be best left parked safely until things were resolved with them.

It was obvious the crew could see the sense of that, but they were also less than happy about leaving the comfort of their home abandoned. Jack had gathered from listening to their conversation the past week that it hadn't been an easy decision to leave and come through the Stargate without their ship to begin with. Not going back for it at the first opportunity when they were already distressed by the absence of three of their family was obviously placing additional strain on them. Despite that, all of them could see the situation well enough not to argue over it. If a few of them grumbled a bit about it under their breath, well that was to be expected, and SG-1 was sympathetic enough to ignore it.

There really wasn't a whole lot they could do in terms of planning until they reached the system. The scanners on the ship would be able to get a better fix on how much naquadah was at that suspicious locale on Persephone, and Jacob intimated there might even be some chance of detecting other Goa'uld with some new tech that the Tok'ra had been working on. Of course that suggestion lead into a slight side argument about how the Tok'ra never did tell their allies anything which wasn't terribly productive. It was actually the eventual interruption of Zoe that got them all back on track.

It was quite obvious Reynold's second was taking her place as the one in charge of their crew now very seriously. Which wasn't to say she had been laughing and goofing off before, there was just an additional intensity to her. It only reinforced Jack's mental comparisons of the crew to his own team, as she currently reminded him very much of Teal'c on a personal mission, perhaps even the pursuit of a Jaffa revenge thing. She'd been at least as angry when her husband was missing, but without Reynolds around to take the brunt of her anger out on she seemed to be wound just that much tighter. Jack was very aware that it might work for or against them, depending on the circumstances.

Although, to be fair, Zoe wasn't the only one displaying that level of additional intensity. Even sweet Kaylee had an edge of angry determination to her that hadn't been there before. Some discussion did take place about whether perhaps some of the _Serenity_ crew ought to stay behind at the SGC while they attempted the rescue, but all of them argued very strongly against it. In the end, it wasn't really worth the hassle of trying to talk anyone out of it, and it was their world the group was going back to, anyway. Who could say which of them might end up being useful?

Although they'd seen SG-1 activate the Stargate several times already, and had been through it to arrive at the SGC on their own this time, the _Serenity _crew still hadn't lost their fascination of the Gate. They were even more enchanted, despite the circumstances, when the group of them stepped through to the planet where they were to pick up the tel'tak into what was pretty near a tropical paradise. A little heavy on the jungle for his tastes – all the shielding foliage being the reason the Tok'ra had chosen it to stash a ship between missions – but definitely a far cry from the sand traps the crew seemed more inclined to be familiar with in Jack's experience.

The trek from the Gate to the ship was short enough that the enthusiasm didn't wane appreciably, and all of the _Serenity_ crew looked strangely at the tel'tak. It wasn't exactly what they were used to looking at when it came to ships. Zoe, Wash, and Jayne looked dubious, but Kaylee was just thrilled even from her first glance. Book and Inara looked like they didn't know what to think.

As they walked into the ship, Kaylee was already interrogating both of the Carters about the ship and how it worked. Zoe tried to chide her, but both of them insisted she wasn't irritating them, and it wasn't too much later Zoe's husband was the one badgering Jacob about how the ship's controls worked. As terse as Zoe had been with the rest of the crew since the group of them had showed up at the SGC, she couldn't seem to bring herself to snap at her husband, so she finally sat back and let the rest of them get on with it.

Most of the _Serenity_ crew was used to having things to do when they were traveling via ship, and after the craft had gotten underway and they'd had their chance to check out all the strangeness of a Goa'uld's ship, it was obvious they were suffering from a lack of those things to do. Well, not Kaylee and Wash, they were busy hanging around Jacob and Sam still asking questions as they worked on flying and the engineering setup of the ship respectively. The other three were left to their own devices along with SG-1.

Jack figured by now he should probably be getting used to sitting around on ships, doing nothing much. SG-1 had done enough of it in the recent past. At least Jacob was here now, and catching up on what was going on with him and Selmak and the Tok'ra at least gave them something to talk about on their way to Alliance space. It also helped that current hyperdrive technology was so much faster than S_erenity._

When they finally got to Alliance space, there was still additional wait time involved, since Jacob needed some time to complete the sensor scan of the system. There were quite a lot of inhabited worlds and moons – an abnormal number to the eyes of the Tok'ra as well. Even the most powerful of the system lords had never managed to pack in quite so many people in such a relatively small space. Which only made the Goa'uld involvement here even more of a mystery than it already was. Normally they were very careful about exactly how high of a population level they allowed slave races to achieve, and were even more vigilant about restricting their technology. Yet here sat the Alliance, with billions of people and spaceships.

Hopefully the scans would turn up a lead as to where they should head – the most accurate ones were searching for large quantities of naqahdah and the energy signatures most common to the tech routinely used by the Goa'uld. If nothing new turned up that seemed especially promising, they'd go straight for that heavily-guarded building on Persphone and forget the consequences. A powerful government with Goa'uld technology in its hands that might know the location of Earth was something that required caution and stealth. A Goa'uld with a cache of people it could manipulate as large as this system, full of planets with tens of millions of people on many of them, was also a thing to be stopped by any means.

Not to mention the hostages. O'Neill didn't quite consider the crew part of his team, but in those months together, some of them had come awfully close and he did not leave people behind if there was a choice. Still, while wanting to save the missing members of the ship's crew certainly factored in, it was a little further down the list than SG-1 were letting on. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to a situation where it would matter, but Jack knew even thinking about the trouble it could be was just asking for it.


	14. That Was Our First Clue

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**Chapter Fourteen: That Was Our First Clue**

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When the Tok'ra's scan of the system was finally complete, they had a few options. There was the naqahdah SG-1 had already detected on Persephone, a second reading of similar strength on Bellerophon, a weaker one on Greenleaf, and the presence of shielding technology hiding a fair amount of space on Londinium. The arrival of so many new options left room for argument about what they should look into first.

SG-1 and Jacob/Selmak agreed the two locations with heavy naqahdah readings were likely to be storage whereas the shielded area was more likely where they would find the Goa'uld behind things. The site on Greenleaf was intriguing, but as it was unshielded and the last known location of operation was deep in the core on Londinium, and really the Core site seemed the best bet to get at the heart of things. What they didn't agree on was what this meant so far as their next action. Jacob and Selmak agreed it would be a better idea to check out the depots first, to try and find some kind of information as to what was going on in the system. The situation was too abnormal for what they knew of the usual Goa'uld playbook for them to go rushing into a confrontation, they felt.

Sam and Daniel seemed swayed by this argument, but Jack and Teal'c both were more in favor of heading straight in for the obvious target. They were dealing with a matter of hostages they didn't want to end up dead or worse, making time and stealth important factors. If they checked out the depots and set off any alarms, they would be tipping their presence – and possibly their ability to find Goa'uld tech - to whoever they were up against. It didn't hurt that it was also the plan the _Serenity _crew was obviously pushing for without a word being spoken, and it would be better to keep the tensions with them as minimal as possible. They knew more about the Alliance and its operations; even with the Goa'uld being ultimately behind things, that knowledge could prove invaluable.

In the end, they compromised a bit. Since the ship would be moving inward from the outer part of the system anyway, it wouldn't take too much longer to fly by Persephone and take a much closer scan of the building there to try and gauge any defenses that might be in place. If it looked reasonable to go down and check it out, they would consider it further at that point.

It was possible to tell once they were in orbit around Persephone that the facility on the planet had a ring transporter, as it synched up with the one on the ship when Jacob started up the scanner controls. The realization made Selmak (and Jacob) all the more insistent about checking the depot out thoroughly first for clues. The presence of such a transporter clearly implied at least the occasional presence of other Goa'uld ships. With most of the Goa'uld's technology revolving around naquadah, there should have been a more widespread detectible presence of it in the system, if the Alliance was producing such things itself. The most likely answer was that such technology was being brought in from outside, but depending on what Goa'uld was behind things and how much power they had elsewhere, that didn't necessarily make their presence in the system a small problem. Especially considering that they could be going about their business in the system shielded as their own ship currently was.

There was still the problem of ringing down into an unknown situation and possibly tipping off the Goa'uld, and faced with so much uncertainty about what was going on, the element of surprise was one of the things decidedly in their favor. Wasting it was not something to be done lightly. In the end, however, they defaulted to Selmak's judgment, as the Tok'ra really did have the most experience with infiltrating Goa'uld strongholds and getting back out again – when it came to doing so without detection, at least. They'd brought the pair in for their assistance, so it only made sense to actually take advantage of their expertise. Sure, if it was any other snakehead, Jack would argue just because, but not with Jacob Carter. Or at least not more than a token protest, anyway.

They did what they could to minimize the risk of detection – such as waiting until the dead of night when it was far less likely anyone would be around. The additional time delay did not sit well with the _Serenity_ crew, but none of them came to the point of actually saying anything. He was a little surprised by that; he had also expected Zoe in Reynold's stead would try to insist she or another member of their crew accompany SG-1 down to check the place out. Apparently, SG-1's assertion they didn't expect to actually find anything more than information here was enough to keep her from it. Or she was just more willing to trust them to know what they were doing after she'd come to them for help. Either way, Jack wasn't complaining.

Aside from the fact they were in the middle of Alliance space, it could have been any number of SG-1 missions. They ringed down, facing outward, ready for anything. Anything turned out to be a room empty of people, but stacked full of large crates along most of the walls, which definitely could have been worse. Their decision to go late at night had seemingly paid off, as even after they checked the few offices that were separate from the main space, the place was just as deserted as it seemed at first. The security that was there was all electronic and easily circumvented by a little attention from Carter.

They did find a great deal of both processed and unprocessed naqahdah, as the ships sensors and Carter's gadgets had told them they would, but what, exactly, it was being used for remained a mystery. The location seemed to be only a storehouse where they found the material packed up in the aforementioned crates labeled as ship parts. The Carters and Selmak had been hoping for some kind of computer system they could hack, or at least documents and files kept on-site which would tell them something more than they already knew. Unfortunately, that hope was for naught. Aside from shipping manifests, which again referred to the supposed ship parts, there was nothing in the warehouse except the crates of naqahdah and standard equipment for a shipping outlet.

Ringing back up to the ship empty handed was disappointing, but at least they weren't caught, and it didn't put their timetable too much further back. Jack could tell that Jacob and Selmak wanted to argue about going to one of the other two smaller sites on similar recon missions, but coming here first had already been a compromise. Thankfully the Tok'ra gracefully conceded the point without saying anything, because this was meant to be a joint mission of fact finding and rescue. Leaving the rescue off long enough it became too late wasn't going to sit well with anyone.

Their next stop would definitely be trickier. They had discovered the compound on Londinium because it had a Goa'uld shield guarding it. Unfortunately, the scanning apparatus Jacob had on this Tel'tak wasn't sophisticated enough to say what type of shielding it was – aside from it blocking any detection inside its boundaries. That might be the only function, or it could have others that would make infiltrating the space significantly harder. O'Neill happily left that little snag in the hands of the two Carters, who were already discussing the possibilities as soon as the course had been set to move them inward towards the Core.

Even though Jacob's ship made the travel distance effectively negligible in comparison to _Serenity_'s much slower engines, the trip was still long enough that everyone was a little on edge by the time they arrived. Undoubtedly because of the situation with the missing crew members and the whole pile of things they didn't know about what they were about to walk into. The tension affected all of them in different ways. The Carters split the time equally between debating possible technology they'd have to get through and catching up on the details of their lives. Kaylee kept joining in and asking questions about the engines on the ship. It was pretty clear she was trying to distract herself, because when she wasn't involved in conversation with them, she looked forlorn and teary eyed. As soon as Daniel picked up on that he took it upon himself to distract her with stories of exciting and exotic places the team had been. Probably the strangest bit of the whole ride was the partial bit of conversation he overheard taking place between Teal'c and _Serenity'_s excitable pilot about the zen of flight. Zoe was sat next to her husband, listening to the whole thing without a word, but with a soft smile on her face.

When the ship arrived at Londinum, they didn't waste any further time orbiting the planet. While Londinum was a densely populated central planet, it had been very precisely planned so there were many designated parks and recreation areas. Some of them were public, while others were restricted areas, making them very useful opportunities for parking one's invisible space ship. It was probably not a coincidence a few such restricted areas circled the set of buildings protected by the shield they were here investigating. Zoe warned them such places had quite a lot of sensors, but by this point Carter had spent enough time working with various Alliance systems she was able to infiltrate those systems as easily as she controlled any other basic alien tech.

Despite some protests from the _Serenity_ crew at the delay, they spent the next couple of days dredging up every last piece of information they could about the site. Visually, the site was a complex of buildings contained both inside the shield that had drawn their attention here and a more physical boundary of an exterior surrounding wall. They had lucked out in that the restricted-access park they'd set down in gave them an unobstructed view of the main entrance of the only building with an obvious egress. Although considering there was an interior courtyard large enough to land a tel'tak in and even the official plans showed basement levels that might lead outside, they couldn't be sure there weren't other, hidden exits.

According to the Cortex, which Carter was able to wrangle access to with Simon's portable link, her laptop, and the ship's computers in a jury-rigged configuration, the official purpose of the complex was to host training seminars for employees from various branches of Blue Sun Corporation. She'd investigated thoroughly and come up with pretty solid data trails on the Cortex corroborating the story of the building's official use. To SG-1, it did seem highly suspicious the previous building and the data crystals they'd retrieved from the earlier mission had both implicated that same company, but the S_erenity _crew explained a huge portion of the industry in the Alliance was under the province of Blue Sun in one way or another. Of course, there was no reason to assume just because the place might be actually functioning as advertised that the conference center couldn't also be a cover for something more sinister.

The colorful brochure-like adverts Carter pulled up first almost exclusively detailed the showy main building with a short aside about the large courtyard space and other buildings used for "storage". Which left quite a lot of space that was not officially being used. Digging deeper, she was able to find some official building permits with a little hacking help from Wash and Kaylee. While they showed only a little more detail than the glossy propaganda, there were notable inconsistencies between what was labeled on them and the corresponding power grid overlays.

Direct visual observation of the complex bore the official story out as well, with the majority of people coming and going in large clumps at specific times corresponding to the online schedule of seminars. Those groups of people regularly coming and going from the compound happened without any disturbance of the shield. After seeing this, Selmak/Jacob concluded the shield prevented ring transports from being used and blocked scanners, but did not otherwise restrict access into the site. Any other function he could think of would require some kind of keyed access to be passed through or having the shield come down during operating hours, and the tel'tak's sensors would have indicated either happening.

The tech team did their best to try and determine what kind of security the building might possess, but as talented as they all were, only the security for the main building of the complex was accessible from outside. Those systems seemed simple enough, but what SG-1 was looking for was not going to be found in the public areas of the complex. The systems they could see were sufficiently complex that Carter didn't feel it was worth the risk to attempt any further external access, which only made it that more likely the ones in the private areas would be even trickier.

The obvious plan was to go in as part of a seminar group and infiltrate their way into the private areas from there. A final check of the Cortex gave them the time of the next scheduled training program and enough of an idea of what it was about that any of the team would be able to answer simple questions if someone did note their presence. Although in general the Alliance was extremely cautious about security, especially on the inner planets, there wasn't too much forging of identification necessary to get in here, as the Blue Sun employees that came in for the seminars were from a whole spectrum of locations and specialties. Sam and Kaylee took care of working out basic idents, but the likelihood they would need them at all was small enough.

Which meant it was time to determine exactly who was going to be on the team that went in, and this time the _Serenity_ crew was not going to let themselves be left out. At least it wasn't the whole crew insisting on going; they'd been talked down from that already. The main disagreement came from their discussion of whether or not they were going to send just one team or two this time. Jacob and Selmak were greatly in favor of the former, and suggested their earlier compromise of sending two might have actually been the reason they were caught out on their original infiltration mission. Leaving aside the fact that having two teams had allowed them to break out easily, having a hidden ship right next door to the complex did allow them the luxury of mounting a fast rescue mission if necessary. They also didn't have the luxury this time of waiting for a random holiday for the building to be mostly deserted; the next such event was over two months away.

Zoe insisted on going herself, which wasn't objectionable. She was obviously the most competent and reliable of _Serenity's_ remaining people in a potential conflict situation. All of the rest of the crew expressed the desire to volunteer, clearly anxious to get their own people back. SG-1 didn't really like separating, and Jacob/Selmak had the greatest familiarity with the Goa'uld and their latest technological advances. Which made the decision of who to take somewhat harder to arrive at.

Finally after a great deal of discussion, and a not insignificant amount of shouting, it was decided. Both Carters needed to be on the team as technology and Goa'uld experts, and Zoe would go along for the crew as a fighter and the closest thing they had to a local expert. In contrast, because those were going, he wanted Teal'c and Daniel to stay behind in case they did end up needing an extraction team later, as backup muscle and tech experts. He didn't want any of SG-1 to go alone, so that put him on the infiltration team.

Inara and Wash didn't have any particular skills they could use for this, although apparently the pilot had been in a couple of gun battles for the crew before. From the sound of it, that had been out of absolute necessity though. Also, Jacob had gone over the controls for flying the tel'tak with him on the trip into the system and Wash had taken to the strange ship as easy as anything. With himself and Jacob on the inside and Teal'c needed as a fighter, the pilot would be better suited to staying behind to fly the ship as part of a rescue effort. Kaylee knew far more than she had before they got on the tel'tak about Goa'uld technology, but still wasn't close to expert and didn't deal well with danger on top of it. None of them were a good idea on an initial team that needed to prioritize efficiency and stealth. That left him with a draw between Book and Jayne.

For his own preference, he would have taken Book, but there was more to consider than that. He didn't really want to leave Jayne behind without Zoe to watch over him – it would be better if they were together, so no one would have to worry about what Jayne was getting up to. It wasn't a question of him intentionally getting them all caught, nothing like that. The man was simply abrasive and aggressive and leaving him with the team staying behind on the ship without someone he clearly recognized as outranking him just seemed like a bad plan. It occurred to Jack a little later this was pretty much the same team he'd chosen on their last mission, with the addition of Jacob. Made him feel a bit silly for spending all the time thinking it over, when it came down to it. Still, it was always a good idea to make sure you were using your resources to their fullest potential, especially when the situation was as full of question marks as this one.

When the day of their chosen opportunity arrived, getting in to the main public building was just as easy as they had come to believe it would be. Avoiding ending up actually attending the ongoing seminar turned out to be a little more complicated, however, as the open lobby was full of attendants who were solicitously herding the stragglers to various rooms. The group decided to just go with it and allow themselves to be herded along with all the rest into the presentation rooms before sneaking back out in smaller groups of ones and twos. Their original plan had been to attempt to use the milling trainees and staff as cover, but the young men and women wearing uniforms and badges with the Blue Sun logo had too many sharp eyes watching all the hallways. In the end, they'd gone with the Plan B Carter had cooked up just in case before they left, which involved a storage and maintenance room she'd earmarked as being in use enough to almost certainly be what it was labeled as but not frequented enough they would have any trouble hiding out there and waiting until the building's off hours.

While they were waiting it out, Carter decided to make use of the time to see if she could gain better access to more of the building's systems since they were now inside the compound. There was a small access terminal in the room, and she did manage to get on a peripheral system that had a more detailed schematic of the buildings. Unfortunately that was the extent of what she was able to call up. If it didn't help much, it did at least confirm that they were on the right track to be suspicious of the place because once again it didn't fully match up to any of the previous information they'd pulled from the Cortex. She concluded that everything else must be locked down in their systems and would remain inaccessible unless she managed to find a terminal with more permissions. The main purpose of this one, Carter explained, was to control basic systems like the temperature, electrical, and computer systems associated with only this building and thus the location's official purpose.

Waiting for the building to clear out took a long while, and the only thing keeping Jack from fidgeting was that Jayne started to after only an hour and he didn't want to join that company. It could have been worse, since the merc quieted down at a terse word from Zoe, and at least their choice of hiding spots turned out to be a good one. The group only had one close call, when one of the uniformed employees came into the room to pull up something on the terminal Carter had accessed. Despite only having a few seconds notice to hunker down behind some crates, the room was large and full of convenient hiding places, and the employee didn't so much as glance away from the target of their errand. Although they didn't have the best vantage point to know when things cleared out, they had researched the general hours of the building and the specific events of the day and they could hear a certain amount of noise in the hallway outside.

Half hour after the last noise of passage outside the room, and fifteen minutes after the official close time, the lights all dropped off in intensity and Carter confirmed on the terminal the building had gone into after hours lock down. They waited just a little longer to give anyone left on site a few more minutes to get out, but then started cautiously exiting the room. The main building was barely lit with recessed emergency lighting, but it was enough to see by as they passed a number of classrooms similar to the one they had been corralled into earlier in the day. There were also a number of storage and maintenance rooms like the one they had hidden out in, and the latter continued to be prominent as they made their way out of the main building and into some of the auxiliary ones surrounding the main courtyard.

Unfortunately, while the exterior doors onto the courtyard had easily circumvented security, there were an increasing number of interior doors that had much more complicated mechanisms in the secondary buildings. Carter was somewhat reluctant to attempt cracking them both from the complexity, obvious alarms, and the exposed positions near the entrances most of them occupied unless it came down to having no other choice. Official closing time of the complex took place well after sunset on the planet, so with enough care to stick to the shadows around the buildings their chances of being spotted were fairly low.

It wasn't until they made their way into the fourth building and found a door left ajar on a set of stairs leading downwards they got their first real indication outside of dodgy building plans they weren't wasting their time here. As they went deeper and deeper underground, the rooms and corridors started to look less and less like Alliance corporate space and more like Goa'uld designs – granted, the walls weren't covered in gold, but there was a certain familiar aesthetic, and handles on the doors were universally replaced by control panels labeled in Goa'uld characters a few levels down.

Although Zoe made an impatient protest and wanted to go on past it to continue looking for the missing members of her crew, the Carters insisted they stop when they came across a room centered around a Goa'uld information console. It was a much better avenue to attempt to get further information than randomly hoping to stumble across the right room before running into anyone. They had been extremely lucky so far, with the main building and courtyard being so dark, and these latter hallways being just as deserted. Down here, however, everything was well lit, and the corridors had branched off in so many directions that it was almost a certainty most of the buildings above lead down here into a single connected underground they had no gauge of the scope of.

Had they not already guessed it to be the case, their accessing the console confirmed the assumption it was their best bet for information. Whoever was in charge clearly assumed anyone who could make it this far down into the hidden part of the complex and read Goa'uld was part of their scheme, because it was not locked down in any way. Before SG-1 became involved, it had probably been safe enough that way.

The Carters quickly moved past general schematics for the complex, looking for more specific information about what had happened to the missing _Serenity_ crew as well any clues as to who was in charge here, and even more importantly, what they were up to. Having resisted learning any more Goa'uld than he absolutely had to, Jack left the Carters to it, waiting for them to give some indication they'd found something worth his knowing about. Sure enough, after just a few minutes of searching through the information, Major Carter made a sudden gasp, and Jack knew it was bad from the way their expressions both twisted into variations of unhappiness. A worried feeling twisting his guts, he immediately asked, "What?"

It was Jacob who answered, his voice flat and dark, "Nirrti, Jack. And it gets worse, because this also says where the symbiotes are from. She's got an accomplice - a queen by the name of Aditi. The two are old associates, but the Tok'ra hadn't heard from Aditi in a very long time. We all assumed she'd died in a conflict with Ba'al nearly a century ago."

"Crap, not her again!" If there was one thing he enjoyed less than finding a new snakehead, it was running afoul of a troublesome one they'd already met. Another thought occurred to him, "You don't think she's got something like Hanka going on here, do you, Carter?"

"Can't be sure, sir," Carter replied, distractedly, still scanning files. "There's a lot of information here, I'm trying to get it onto a download crystal to take back and look over later." Jack was about to nudge her towards finding information more crucial to their current mission, but was beaten to it.

"What about our people," Zoe interjected, curt with impatience. Jack didn't blame her for her single-mindedness, and it wasn't like she had any idea just how colossally bad what the Carters had just said really was. She also had a point. As important as gathering information was, they needed to move on as quickly as possible. The complex seemed mostly deserted but banking that it would continue to be so was relying too much on luck that too often turned bad.

"I'm looking for that, too, but I haven't seen anything yet. Even the Goa'uld generally aren't arrogant enough to put 'prisoners kept here' on their schematics," Carter said, still not looking up, but sounding just a bit put-upon.

It felt like it took forever for them to finish up, and Jack couldn't quite help but fidget a little bit. The earlier waiting hadn't helped his patience any, but that wasn't it. The longer they were here with no indication of so much as a patrol, the more he started to worry. Finally, after a short whispered conference between the two Carters, they stepped away from the console. As they moved away, he saw Jacob grab and tuck away a data crystal into one of the many pockets of his Tok'ra smock. Meanwhile, Carter announced that they thought they had a good idea of where to look for the missing crew and lead the way out of the room.

They had heard the sound of distant footsteps a few times, and seen a couple of people in windows from the courtyard, but had so far managed to avoid being noticed themselves as they moved through the halls. As they moved their way even deeper into the underground complex, and heard even more sounds of distant movement, Jacob quietly explained that there was a sub-basement with a lot of small rooms with different electronic locks than those found anywhere else in the system just above the level where the labs were located. If there were any prisoners here, that was the most likely place for them.

Luck and stealth had allowed them to get quite a distance down into the hidden part of the complex, at least six levels down, but when attempting to traverse a seventh it finally ran out on them. As they came around the corner to access the final stairway down to the level they needed to get to, they came into the sight line of a guard posted at the elevator bank an unfortunate distance away. He had shouted an alert and hit an alarm before they could subdue him. The group tried to quickly retreat backwards to reconsider their route options, but it was only a few seconds later when a pair of men in fancy suits and bright blue gloves came walking swiftly into the hallway behind them.

The increasing sound of pursuit from the direction of the elevators made it clear they weren't the only backup to arrive on the scene, either. Unlike Goa'uld ships, there was unfortunately nowhere to duck behind for cover, and it was only seconds after they spotted the men coming around the corner from the direction they'd just fled that Jack registered something on the ground. He looked down to see that the gloved men had apparently rolled a Goa'uld shock grenade directly into their midst. Neither he nor any of the others had time to do anything much in response before everything went white.

...

Waking up to the aftereffect of blindness from one of those things was never fun. Into the darkness, Jack asked after the presence of his team, "Carter? Jacob?"

"Hey now! Why can't I see nothin'?" Jayne butted in before anyone else could respond.

"The blindness is temporary. It should dissipate shortly," Selmak replied to Jayne's question, and then Jacob asked, "Is everyone here?"

"Here, Dad," Carter mumbled. Jack, blinking furiously, thought he could perhaps already sense a little bit of a lightening in the darkness blocking his vision.

Zoe added her own voice to the chorus, "Here. What was that?"

"A Goa'uld shock grenade," Jack answered, now able to see those around the room in vague outlines. There was some kind of harsh light emanating down from overhead, and the walls were a dark stone with hard benches extending from two of the four otherwise smooth surfaces. Moving on to the team, he counted and noted everyone's positions around the room, seeing one, two, three, four, five human shapes scattered around on the floor and one of the benches. He stiffened in involuntary alarm. Wait, five? A count of five made a total of six, which was one more than there should be on his team. His question about who the heck was in here with them was answered shortly when the fifth person, who was the only one sitting on the bench at the far side of the cell, finally spoke up.

"So far, I can't say I'm impressed with this rescue," Simon's voice drolly commented.

"Ain't exactly unusual for us, Doc," Jayne snorted, though he sounded oddly upbeat, all things considered.

"Dr. Tam? Are the others here?" Carter asked. Although she was looking around, Jack figured she could tell the others weren't actually in the room at the moment since by now he was starting to be able to make out her features beyond just her blonde head of hair. Just because they weren't here right at this moment didn't mean that Simon hadn't seen them.

"River's here somewhere," his voice was flat and he sounded tired. Still, his tone did turn a bit worried as he continued, sitting up from where he'd been slouched, "Who else did you expect? No one else was with us. Wait, who is this with you, did you just call him 'Dad'?"

"Yes, this is my father Jacob Carter. You haven't seen Captain Reynolds?"

Jack could see well enough now to register the surprise on the doctor's face, and his tone was hesitant and hopeful. "Isn't, I mean, before they knocked us out he didn't – I thought he was dead?"

"He was gone when we woke up," Zoe contributed, matter-of-factly. Around the room, the group gradually got to their feet, stretching out and exploring the depressingly blank walls. Although there was a panel by the grooves around what was presumably the door that Jack hadn't previously been able to see, which was strange for the interior of a cell, but hey, he wasn't going to complain. If the Goa'uld wanted to make things easier for the rest of the universe by dressing their soldiers in clanky armor and putting door controls inside prison cells, all to the better.

Simon's voice broke into his musings, "So you figure he's here and, uh, alive?"

"We don't figure. We don't know." Jack said, not wanting to encourage him to hope too much. Good things did not generally happen to people dragged away to be held in Goa'uld strongholds. Despite what they had already learned on their own, Jack was curious what Simon knew of their current situation. He may have managed to get himself subjected to a good villain gloat before SG-1 got here, after all. "You have any better idea of who these people are and why they took you?"

Simon shook his head to indicate a negative. He sighed, before elaborating plaintively, "They want River, like they always want River." His face twisted into an expression of distaste, "I get the impression they only brought me along to control her."

"Where is little River right at the moment, anyway?" Jack asked.

"They take her, several times a day. She won't tell me where or what they do with her. It's obviously traumatic, but she refuses to talk about it. You have a plan to get us out of here, right?" Unsurprisingly, he sounded quite unhappy at the thought of his sister being distressed.

"Yeah, uh, working on it," Jack replied. "Carter-s?"

"On it, sir," his 2IC said, moving to look more closely at the covered panel by the door.

"Wait, you came in to rescue us and you don't even have a plan? I thought you said the Captain wasn't with you?" Simon asked sarcastically.

Zoe shot him a glare, and Jayne grumbled. Jack just pointedly ignored him, getting up to pace the room a bit while Carter pried the cover off and started trying to manipulate the controls to get the door open. Barring that, they'd have to wait a day or so for the team on the ship to come looking for them, which was a backup plan he was hoping they wouldn't have to rely on.

He'd already lost track of the number of times he'd walked back and forth when Jacob walked over to interpose himself into Jack's path. The Tok'ra didn't say anything, so Jack took the initiative. "Anything you two found in their computers tell you what we should do here, or what to expect from this other Goa'uld working with ol' Nirrti?"

"'Fraid not, Jack. Like I said, Selmak recognizes the name, but Aditi was always the type to let others do the dirty work for her."

Simon, who had gotten up to watch over Sam's shoulder as she fiddled with the combination lock, came in their direction, and opened his mouth to speak again. Jack presumed it would either be another snarky dig at their rescue effort or a further comment about his sister, who was always on his mind.

Jacob's attention suddenly shifted to him, however, and he cut across whatever the man had been about to say. "Who are you?"

"It's Dr. Tam, one of the _Serenity_ crew we're here for, Jacob," Jack replied, confused. Hadn't they pretty much established that one already?

The retired General's tone was harsh, "No, I mean what's the name of the Goa'uld who's controlling him."

Simon Tam's eyes flashed.

"Aw, crap."

.

.

.

A/N: On a good day, I get kind of flustered by not knowing what to reply to reviews. On a bad day when I get caught up in other things, I sometimes entirely forget to actually reply. Because I think I may be recently guilty of that even more than normal, I'd just like to put it out there that I always appreciate hearing feedback, and want to thank anyone who has taken the time to express interest or comment about this story.


	15. They Don't Like it When You Shoot at 'Em

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**Chapter Fifteen: They Don't Like it When You Shoot at 'Em**

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Everyone had previously been pointedly ignoring Jack's pacing for the most part, so the sudden upswing of tension in the cell wasn't immediately obvious to all the others. The echo-y tones of a Goa'uld speaking through Tam's voice box, however, quickly drew the attention of everyone to where the three of them were standing in the center of the cell. "So the rotten plague that is the Tok'ra has finally noticed us?"

Selmak was the one to respond with actual words, while Zoe cursed in low-voiced indistinguishable Chinese and everyone else just stared. As the one addressed, Jacob responded, "Who is us?"

"Do not play stupid with me, Tok'ra. I heard your conversation quite clearly. You know of Nirrti and Aditi, and you are going to tell us what else you know and who else knows you are here."

"Yeah, I don't think so," Jack replied belligerently.

"We have heard of you as well, O'Neill of SG-1," the Goa'uld said, turning dismissive eyes his way. "Nirrti's has apprised us of the trouble you have caused the System Lords. We shall be happy to end your interference for them."

Ahh, good old Goa'uld posturing. He'd thought perhaps he missed it, when confronted with those expressionless mooks with the silly gloves, but nah. He hadn't really. Even above how much he truly hated to see a Goa'uld sneering out of the face of a friend, the ego and bragging just never got any less ridiculous. He didn't bother to give any other response beyond rolling his eyes.

"We will tell you nothing," Selmak replied disdainfully, not quite so willing to hold back.

"We shall see," the Goa'uld replied. It shoved Carter out of the way from where she was still standing by the controls, and tapped in a code to open the door. Outside, two of the glove-wearing weirdoes stepped into view, holding zats on them all until the door closed again.

"Well, at least we didn't actually tell him anything," Jack said into the silence occupying the room, trying to summon some optimism after this turn of events.

"The Doc got himself taken over by one of them snake-things?" Jayne asked sounding both disgusted and disbelieving at once.

"How do we get it out?" Zoe interjected, while Jayne continued muttering to himself.

Jack winced. "It is possible. The Tok'ra can do it, but we'd have to get him to them, and the snake won't make it easy."

Selmak authoritatively took up the conversation before any more questions or objections could be made. "That is a matter for later. We must decide what we are going to do for ourselves right now." He bowed his head, and it was Jacob who continued, "I'm sure Sam can get the door open, but it's guarded, we still don't know exactly what we're looking at here especially in terms of the scope of their operation, and we've lost our weapons."

"Oh sure, if you want to look at the negative side, Jacob," Jack felt compelled to snark back.

Time passed, and Carter said she thought she could get the door, but the group was a bit undecided about whether or not they should attempt to make a move before they had something that better resembled a plan. The downside was that if they made a break for it from this cell, they might next be put into one which didn't have any easily accessible control panels. While they were most probably in the cell-like rooms they had been heading towards anyway, they had no idea how many other guards might be present this deep in the complex beyond the two already stationed right outside the door, and they had no more idea about where any of the _Serenity_ crew were now, snaked or not.

They did know when Daniel and Teal'c were planning to mount a rescue. If they were to make a break for it at that same time, it might give them a better chance. On the other hand, the longer they were here, the more likely the Goa'uld would start getting colorful ideas about torture. Or, Jack shuddered internally, monologuing.

Before they could really make a decision one way or the other, or even really get too far into discussing the pros and cons of their options, the door was opened again, and they were ordered to move to stand against the back wall of the cell. Two more lackeys dumped an unconscious River in with them before the door was shut again. As soon as the door thumped closed, Carter moved to check on the girl.

"Drugged, definitely. She's out and she doesn't feel like a Goa'uld, sir," she said.

With this additional development, they decided it was most prudent to wait and see if River woke up and had anything to say that might clarify things. True, it seemed the Goa'uld here had either had a hand in giving River her abilities or at the very least had come after her for them, so perhaps they couldn't be sure of trusting anything she had gleaned. At the very least, however, it would be easier to make an escape if none of them were unconscious.

The waiting hadn't gotten any more fun, which left them all fairly anxious as River continued to remain conked out. What surely had to be hours trickled by interminably, making Jack start to doubt the plan. Finally the girl showed signs of consciousness, and O'Neill urged Carter to check her again. His Major didn't even make it to the girl before she was awake and crab-crawling away backwards in a surge of flailing limbs, looking entirely unaware of who any of them were. Carter, likely considering the stories they'd been told of the girl's abilities, stopped abruptly and said her name coaxingly before getting any closer.

Hearing her name spoken in such a soft tone, the girl blinked. Jack could actually see her coming back to herself as her expression cleared and she realized who the people in the room with her were. She turned immediately to Jacob/Selmak, "You can fix Simon."

"It might be possible," Jacob agreed cautiously.

River nodded solemnly in response. "Getting ahead. Have to follow the steps."

"So, River," Jack started cheerily, "have anything to say about our first step, escaping?"

"Cell is easy, already figured out. Arrogant snakes think you can't but we can. Back to the ship will be tricky. The girl can sense guards, but too many electronic eyes watch the compound."

"Alright-y, then. Any reason not to go now?"

River shook her head once decisively in the negative, and gracefully pulled herself to her feet with nary a wobble. He thought it over for a few minutes, whether or not they should trust River. The things the crew had told them about River and conditioning, there was no guarantee here. He tried to get some indication from looking at the girl, but she just blinked wide, innocent eyes at him. Of course, short of knocking the girl out again, she was going to be involved in their escape anyway. He looked to the members of the _Serenity_ crew, and saw no doubt lingering in their expressions. His own gut was saying to go along with it and hope she was as guileless as she seemed, because their escape would be far easier with her on their side.

"Well, that's your cue then, Carter." Jack said, letting none of his doubt show in his voice and gesturing expansively to the access panel.

As she went over to the panel, River went with her and whispered something as Carter went to reach for the innards again. There was a short exchange he couldn't hear, though it involved River nodding her head and pointing insistently as Carter questioned something. After seeming to accept what the girl was saying, it didn't take the astrophysicist much longer to get the door to open, since she had already spent a fair amount of time with the mechanism before River had been returned to the room, and the element of surprise was enough to allow them to take out the four glove-wearing guards in a coordinated effort. Although they were tougher than they looked and it was closer than it should have been.

Before they set off down the corridor, Carter spoke up, the expression on her face a puzzled one. "Sir, I can just barely sense something weird from them. I didn't mention it before because it was so faint I wasn't even sure it was naquadah. Sensing it again now, it doesn't feel anything like a Goa'uld, but-"

River cut in, "Jaffa."

Carter's brows drew down and she frowned a little, but she didn't contradict River.

"You didn't mention knowing about Jaffa before," Jack asked, his brow wrinkling in slight confusion. River had mentioned knowing about the blue hands, but she'd never given any indication Teal'c wasn't the first Jaffa she'd met.

"Bad memories, put them away. Didn't know, didn't matter. Not important," River admonished him, impatient, grabbing one of the guards by the heels to haul him into the cell they'd just vacated.

Carter nodded, as the rest of them grabbed the other guards and hauled them in to join River's before Carter pulled off the exterior panel on the door and ripped up a few of the wires. As she worked, she mused, "They must not have the traditional tattoos because the local Goa'uld are trying to maintain a low profile."

Zoe sucked in a breath; the woman had been mostly quiet during their time in the cell, and in going through the complex for that matter. "Just how widespread do you think these Goa'uld creatures are in the Alliance?" She asked, very seriously.

Sam answered quietly, "We can't be entirely sure, but from what I saw so far in their database, they've only begun incubating larvae locally in the past few years. So there are probably a lot of Jaffa, but mature Goa'uld that can take a host would only have been brought in from outside. There might be better answers in the data we copied, but it's not something we can really worry about right now."

"I find it fairly worrisome," Zoe muttered, but then subsided with a look that said she understood Carter's point and would drop it for now.

They started off down the hall, with River insisting on leading the way. It was obvious from the expression of dismay on his face that either Jacob or Selmak (or both) wanted to argue about that at first, but a hushed conversation in whispers about the girl's abilities and a pointed look from Jack got him to subside. She lead them up a few floors and into a similar hallway than the one they'd just left behind, stopping in front of a locked door.

"What's this?" Jack asked her, when it was obvious she was waiting for them to deal with the door.

"First stop. No one's inside," was all she seemed willing to say. The group of them exchanged looks, and Jack braced himself for this to be the point where it all went wrong. Still, if they were going to trust the girl, they needed to trust her this far.

Carter got to work on the locking mechanism. The next few moments were a tense stretch of standing around feeling conspicuous while listening for the slightest sound of movement down any of the surrounding corridors. The tense silence was broken by the smooth slide of the door opening to reveal all of the team's gear laid out across a couple of tables. Without a word exchanged, the group of them stepped inside and retrieved their respective items. Done, Jack turned his attention back to River who had been fidgeting in the doorway, waiting on them.

Seeing they were ready to continue on again, River stepped back out into the hallway and the rest of them followed. Since they'd come up two floors via a stairway, Jack had rather assumed they were gradually moving upwards, but when they got back over to the stairs, River instead lead them downward three floors.

She paused before opening the door into the level, seeming to be concentrating all her attention. Whatever she was doing, after a minute she came to the conclusion to move on again, and entered yet another similar-looking hallway. The girl lead them down the hall and turned from that one into a second, and then further into a third after passing several otherwise identical corridors along the way. Finally, she came to the stop in front of yet another door.

"Second stop," River said, and this time, instead of waiting on them, she began to work on the door herself. Carter moved forward to look over her shoulder as she worked, but didn't interfere. It took her just a bit longer than the others had taken Carter. After all, as bright as River was, the Major had a whole lot more experience actually working with the Goa'uld's technology herself, rather than general knowledge or knowledge gleaned from Carter's head.

As the door slid open this time, Jack muttered to himself, "And behind door number two, we have -" Jacob was the only one close enough to hear him and just gave him a huff of annoyance and an abrupt head shake. Though the fact his lip quirked upward betrayed that he was actually just a touch amused.

Jack hadn't thought much about what River might be taking them off to do, but he wasn't entirely surprised when the space beyond the door was revealed to be another cell that contained Captain Reynolds. The man didn't really look so good, although considering the last time anyone had seen him they'd figured him for dead, he could certainly be worse off. There were obvious bloody holes in his clothing, although from their dried out state, Jack assumed they were from the previous wounds the crew had observed – count that one question answered, there was another sarcophagus around here somewhere. Even if he wasn't in the process of bleeding to death, he did look like he'd lost a couple rounds with a Jaffa or three somewhere along the way.

With the opening of the door, Reynolds had looked up at them in a weary sort of way, only to have that expression turn to a wide-eyed surprise. At the same time, Zoe had automatically started to move forward into the cell. It wasn't probable, considering the confinement and all the very colorful bruises Reynolds was sporting, but Jack O'Neill wasn't going to be one to underestimate the sneakiness of a bunch of snakes. He therefore barred her way and turned abruptly in the direction of Carter and incidentally River, who was the one who actually answered his unspoken question.

"No snake. Just Simon," she said on a sigh.

"No offense, but I'd feel better if Carter checked anyway," Jack said, motioning for the Major to do just that.

Carter coughed a little, probably to cover up her amusement at the fact River stuck her tongue out at him in response, then asked, "Why Simon? Why not him – or even you? If they're the people who operated on you or are interested in you because they heard about the modifications you've undergone, wouldn't it be because of your potential as a host?" As she talked she moved into the room to get a sense of Reynolds, and caught his eye to nod in confirmation of River's assessment that the man was Goa'uld-free. The second he dropped his arm, Zoe was past him and into the cell to help the captain out.

Meanwhile, River's eyes went even wider than normal with distress at Carter's words. "Not finished yet. Want to make some new modifications, experiments, cut new parts, make new abilities, see why it only worked on the girl and not the others. All the others, so many" she shuddered, and then visibly made an effort to pull together, and looked back up, directly into his eyes. "We have to get out of here."

"That is the plan," Jack said evenly, making an effort to sound as if it was a foregone conclusion. Considering that the girl could sometimes hear his thoughts, he made a mental effort to add that SG-1 were experts at escaping from Goa'uld plots. River gave him a wan smile for it.

While they'd been talking, Reynolds and his second had been having their own quiet exchange. Jack looked over to see that Reynolds was moving to join them under his own steam, although he was moving stiffly and not with any particular speed. Whatever they'd been doing to him, it certainly didn't seem to have affected the man's attitude any, as the first words out of his mouth when they were all standing together in the doorway were complaints about how long they had taken to come and rescue him.

"Do we have a plan?" Zoe turned from her focus on Reynolds, after making sure he wasn't going to fall over, giving Jack a dubious look.

"We should head back to the ship, Jack. We have only a limited idea of how big this compound is, or how many Goa'uld and Jaffa are here, and we aren't prepared for a major assault. I think we need to get out and regroup, see if we can get anything useful out of the information we copied. Selmak agrees," Jacob volunteered.

"We have to save Simon," River interjected stubbornly.

"Any idea how we can do that? It's a bit problematical, considering," Jack asked her, quite serious.

Reynolds couldn't stay quiet, of course. "On account of Doc's been taken over by one of those snake aliens, right? I figured that from the way he was grinning while being all hostile with his fists."

"How perceptive of you," Jack mocked. Reynolds just smirked. Apparently their appearance was enough of a relief to keep him from getting riled up by a little sarcasm, despite his complaints.

Meanwhile, River hadn't answered, just looked to him with a pleading expression. Jack sighed, and turned to the two Carters. "Thoughts? Suggestions?"

Jacob shrugged. "I already said what we think."

Sam looked at River nervously. "We really need a better plan. I'd like to help you get Simon back, of course I would, but getting us recaptured really won't help."

"I can guide you," River insisted. "Weren't expecting us here, if we go, they'll send more. A lot more. We won't make it back in – Simon came for me! I can't leave him!" she didn't quite become hysterical, but the girl's voice definitely crept higher towards the end of her speech.

Jack looked over his team. Despite the fact he was propping himself up on the wall, Reynolds looked like he was gearing up to argue if he went along with Jacob's suggestion to get out. Zoe he still couldn't read, which considering he could now often figure out what Teal'c was thinking by his expressions was really saying something. Sam looked nervous and undecided and Jayne was muttering Chinese curses under his breath – still, Jack got the impression that he, too, was likely to argue. Jack sighed, internally admitting he didn't have any more inclination to leave the girl's brother behind than anyone else did. "Alright. I'm sure this is a bad idea, but," and he flourished a gesture at River to lead them onward.

They silently made their way through the complex, following the teenager. Sometimes she would stop for long periods, and other times she would break into what was nearly a run leading them several corridors away from the direction they had been heading in. Five times she stopped and used hand signals to indicate to them there were guards ahead.

Each time that happened, the group did their best to take the Jaffa pairs out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Having their zats back was handy for that, at least. Still, it couldn't be too much longer before either someone noticed their cells were empty or figured out that some of the guards weren't checking in. Jack kept expecting to hear some kind of base-wide alarm go off.

"Silent alarm," River muttered back at them as she lead them around yet another corner in the maze of hallways that was starting to seem interminable. "Almost there," she added, looking directly back at him. "Easier to read when you're thinking so loud," she further chided, adding a "shhh!"

Jack grimaced to himself, and thought that the only good thing about it was Daniel wasn't there to make jokes about how unlikely it was for him to be thinking, period. It was only two more hallways before River brought them to another door, although this one they had to knock out two pairs of guards standing attendance outside. Stepping into the room, it was immediately recognizable as a fancy personal chamber for one of the Goa'uld, both by the gaudy decorations adorning it and the sarcophagus dominating the space.

"Simon," River said in a choked up tone of voice, pointing, unsurprisingly, to the big gold box.

"Now – wait. Didn't ya say this sar-cough thingy was to fix dead folk?" Jayne asked, curious, with a tone that held an overtone of something Jack couldn't identify.

"The Goa'uld extend their lifespan and enhance their dominance of their hosts by sleeping inside. The Tok'ra believe this is part of why they are the way they are," Jacob explained.

"Whaddya mean by that?"

"Evil. Megalomaniacal. Overly dramatic. Bad dress sense," Jack listed absently. Jacob rolled his eyes, but didn't disagree.

"Is the Goa'uld gonna wakey-wakey any time soon?" Jack asked River, and then another thought occurred to him, "He doesn't have a hand device or anything in there with him, does he?"

"No weapons. Soon. Hopefully soon enough," she looked back towards the now closed door with an apprehensive expression. That was not reassuring at all, and he exchanged a worried glance with both Carters. Without speaking, they split up, Jack moving to cover the sarcophagus and Major Carter the door. Zoe and the others split between them, with her joining him where he fidgeted, standing over the box.

Thankfully, despite River's concern, it was only a few more minutes before the top of the sarcophagus split open. There was a short struggle, but although the Goa'uld that had taken over the doctor had the same strength any of them had, it was weaponless, and as soon as he was out of the box they could safely zat him. It kept him down long enough for them to use some zip ties from their gear to secure his limbs. They gagged him as well, though not fast enough to avoid being harangued with the usual crap about how they'd all suffer the wrath of their gods, yadda yadda.

"Now can we get outta here?" Jacob asked, not bothering to hide his impatience at the delay.

"Works for me," Jack agreed, and turned to their psychic guide. "River?"

While it was true that having River with them was a great advantage, it was now counterbalanced by a couple of things. For one, all of Jayne's attention, and some of Zoe's, was taken up by hauling the bound Simon around. On top of that, the hide-and-seek they'd been running through the corridors of the complex hadn't been too kind to Reynolds. The man was still coming along behind them on his own two feet, but the effort of it was showing in his speed, stiffness, and the grimaces of pain he was no longer even attempting to hide.

River had started leading them in a generally upward direction again, although they did keep detouring fairly often, and after just a few levels they'd already run into the same amount of guards they'd dispatched on the way to get Simon. Presumably that silent alarm River had mentioned was now going off. There was nothing for it but to keep going, however.

Or at least, that's what Jack figured until River came to a dead stop and didn't give any indication she planned to move any time soon and that inactivity stretched on past several minutes. Just as he was about to ask her what was up himself, Reynolds prompted the girl. "Hey, Albatross, what's the holdup on this escape we're in the middle of here?"

"Know we're free, waiting upstairs. Too many." She bit her lip, and looked back at all of them with eyes that were even wider than normal in anxiety.

Jack's mind immediately went towards trying to form a plan B. He was a little disappointed in himself he hadn't already come up with one, considering all the thoughts he'd already had on the relative luck of SG-1 and the _Serenity_ crew. That was neither here nor there, though. "River, do you know how many Goa'uld there are and where they are?"

"Aditi is down below in her lab, only her and Simon. Others out there. Nirrti isn't here, doesn't ever stay long. Too arrogant to hide."

As much as Jack was interested in knowing why the Goa'uld had decided to stay hidden here, because it was an uncharacteristic and decidedly odd choice in the context of their usual world domination schemes, this really wasn't the time. "All right, let's head back down there and see if we can't cause some kind of a ruckus and draw the Jaffa in to protect the head snake."

"No."

"Excuse me, no?" Jack asked the girl incredulously. She'd just said they couldn't get out, surely she realized they shouldn't just stand here and wait to be picked up!

River turned her head towards him so that Jack could clearly see her rolling her eyes. "The others are here, came early, planning a distraction. Soon. Be patient." Okay, so maybe the girl was a genius mind-reader with all kinds of kung-fu fighting skills smushed into her head by wacky Goa'uld scientists – he still didn't like being condescended to by a teenager.

In the end, they didn't need River to signal them, the sound of gunfire from the floor above and not too far from their position did fine. They all started forward and headed up the stairs River lead them to just around a bend, moving quickly. At the top of the stairs was a different building than any of the ones they'd explored, but it shared a similar wealth of random crates and stacked items with a couple they had seen. When they got to where they were actually in position to view a door, they found the source of the gunfire in a group of guards all facing outside to the courtyard between the buildings. Visible around them through the doorway was the presence of the tel'tak, set down in the middle of the open space.

With the element of surprise and the guards paying no attention to what was behind them, they quickly and efficiently took out the group around the door and moved up to get a better idea of the situation outside. The more complete view revealed several pairs of Jaffa arrayed around the square, firing toward the ship. However, it wasn't doing them much good. If they possessed any significant number of the typical Goa'uld weapons they were eschewing their use in favor of more simple firearms that weren't so much as denting the hull, whereas Teal'c was doing quite a bit of return damage with his staff weapon.

While Jack was contemplating the overly dangerous option of attempting to dash to the ship, it occurred to Zoe to grab her radio and attempt to hail those inside their rescue ship. She easily got a response from Daniel, and after a short exchange of words, through which the archaeologist figured out what building they were in, Wash maneuvered the ship around so the open door would face them and moved its position closer to where they were. Not only would it make the risky dash across open space shorter, it also put the bulk of the tel'tak between them and most of the potential fire.

The ship wasn't moved into position any too soon, either, as a bullet pinged off the doorway from inside the building to announce the presence of a new group of guards behind them. That was enough of a signal for all of them to make the dash for the ship's open hangar. With a bit of luck and rather more covering gunfire to their rear and from Teal'c in the ship, all of them made it aboard with only Reynolds getting an additional graze before they were safely inside with bulkheads between them and the incoming fire. The second Zoe, who was the furthest to the rear, made it inside, the door clanged shut and the ship shot up into the sky. Jacob rushed to the control console to make sure they engaged the cloak, and Jack allowed himself to breathe in a sigh of relief.

Granted, this rescue didn't exactly solve all of their problems – unless the crew came back to Earth with them, _Serenity _would spend all its days expecting yet another trap so long as the Goa'uld were here. Worse, with an unknown number of Jaffa incubating new symbiotes from a producing queen, eventually there were going to be a lot more Goa'uld here to worry about. Certainly they didn't know yet what the plans behind this whole elaborate setup were – hopefully the crystal Jacob had managed to hang onto would give them some clues on that point – but maniacal plans aside, things were worrisome enough with such a huge population under even inadvertent Goa'uld control. Still, for the moment, escaping to fight another day was the most important part.


	16. One Last Jaunt?

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**Chapter Sixteen: One Last Jaunt?  
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"Now, this ain't to say I don't appreciate the rescue, as I surely do. But where in the hell is my ship?"

It was just as well they hadn't taken bets on it, as Jack would have lost. He was sure Reynolds would have started complaining about his missing ship before they even broke atmo. Somehow the man actually made it until they were all the way off the planet, though. Of course, it might have had something to do with the fact that by the time they'd made it into the ship, _Serenity's_ captain had looked very close to passing out.

Zoe was the one who finally answered, "We left her parked back near their Stargate, sir." She continued on, speaking faster to talk over the objection he opened his mouth to make as a line of dismay etched its way between his brows, "This ship has stealth, speed, and shield capabilities _Serenity_ lacks. I doubt we'd have gotten ourselves anywhere near here without it."

Reynolds grumbled something under his breath in Chinese, and everyone pretty much pointedly ignored it. The rest of them were all far more concerned with the question Jayne asked, "Now what?"

"We head to the nearest Tok'ra base," Jacob replied.

"Uh, shouldn't we maybe discuss it first?" Daniel asked.

"Look, we have no idea how big this operation is, but we might be able to figure that out once we've gone over the information we got from their data system. The Tok'ra are the best qualified to do that, and they can take care of the Goa'uld," he gestured at Simon's trussed form, "which we want to do before it has a chance to get loose and cause trouble."

It didn't help that Kaylee kept sneaking sympathetic glances at the doctor. The girl wasn't stupid, but with a Goa'uld being able to impersonate the person it was controlling and her being so attached to Simon, it would be prudent to get the snake out as soon as possible. She'd already asked if it was really necessary they have him tied and gagged before they'd even started up the hyperdrive to leave the system. As little as he wanted to go and make nice with the Tok'ra, well, ever, what Jacob said made a great deal of sense, so Jack didn't object. Taking Jack's lack of comment for the assent it was in conjunction with Jacob's perfectly sensible reasons, Daniel subsided. Carter hadn't even looked up from where she was probing Reynold's injuries to determine their severity, and Teal'c was silent while keeping a forbidding eye on the Goa'uld.

It was a long seven days to get them to the nearest Tok'ra outpost Jacob could be certain was both open to outsiders and had the equipment for the extraction procedure on-site. They'd ended up forbidding Kaylee being anywhere near Simon halfway through the trip. The Goa'uld had taken advantage of Teal'c leaving to kel'noreem and tried impersonating Simon to the sympathetic mechanic when he was left ungagged after a meal. Luckily, River had been awake and come running in to stop her before she'd been able to actually untie him. Most of the rest of the crew, even when they were obviously uncomfortable with seeing the doctor tied up, were willing to let it go without objection because of how vehemently River insisted upon it. Things had also run smoother after that point when they'd taken Selmak's suggestion of sedating the Go'auld. It wasn't a great plan for Simon's health in the short term, but would keep them from having to worry about the snake escaping or killing its host.

Similarly, they took their cue from River when they ringed down into the Tok'ra base. She didn't object when a pair of Tok'ra half-escorted, half-carried Simon away after a short conversation in Goa'uld with Selmak, so neither did they. The crew made more exclamation over the ring technology and finding themselves surrounded by Tok'ra than Simon's being ushered off out of sight. It obviously bothered them, though, as Inara and Book both sent unconcealed concerned looks off that way, and Kaylee's exclamation over the crystalline structure of the Tok'ra tunnels was brief and muted compared to her usual enthusiasm.

Carter and Jacob parted from the group headed in a different direction, the latter saying they were going to work on trying to unencrypt and sort the information from the data crystal they had retrieved from the compound. Carter had already been working on it off and on during the trip here, but while a great deal of the general information seemed to be easily readable, if too voluminous to easily sort through, any actual information about the ultimate purpose of the facility or the Goa'uld's plans was encoded. The Tok'ra, having spent centuries spying on various Goa'uld, had a better idea of the kinds of codes they used, and Selmak was hopeful that with their facilities and references to past codes they would be able to make progress much faster.

Simon and the information in the hands of those best equipped to deal with them, the rest of the group was left at mostly loose ends. Some of them more than others, of course. Daniel could always find someone to talk the ear off of, and despite their general arrogance, there were a couple of Tok'ra researchers willing to talk rocks and Goa'uld politics with the archaeologist. Likewise, Book, who had been bothered by what they'd said about the sarcophagus and souls ever since SG-1 had first mentioned the devices, voiced his concerns to their escorts. The result had been finding out the Tok'ra had philosophers, and Jack was happy to tune out the very long discussions on the nature of souls and higher beings that followed. He'd half expected River might join the Carters working on decryption, but he never saw her even go near that part of the complex. Instead she seemed to mostly spend her time trailing behind Kaylee chatting up various Tok'ra to distract herself and training with Teal'c down in the Tok'ra version of a rec center.

For his part, Jack just wandered the tunnels, bored. There was a little bit of excitement in the avoidance of Freya/Anise. That particular Tok'ra still creeped him out in the worst way. Perhaps it wasn't very nice of him, but he attempted to foist her off on both Reynolds and Jayne, but apparently neither one fit her criteria for prospective Lo'machen-ing for snake or host. It did provide a further bit of amusement when the big mercenary was interested, and took to following the scientist snake around for a while, to her imperfectly suppressed irritation. Apparently the man had gotten some strange ideas about her job among the Tok'ra from her choice of outfits, a debacle that ended in some outraged shrieking and Reynolds having to apologize repeatedly to the snakeheads for his gunhand's behavior.

All together, it was another four days of waiting before one of the Tok'ra who'd been in the party to take the Goa'uld inhabited doctor away came looking for them. The whole group was escorted down to a portion of the tunnels that had been noted as off-limits by their guides before now, and were lead into a room where _Serenity's_ doctor was clad in beige Tok'ra garb looking pale and sickly.

As they entered the room, Kaylee nervously looked to River first, still stinging over the multiple angry scoldings she'd gotten for the incident on the ship. River, however, paid her no mind, already rushing into the room with a cry of, "Simon!" to throw herself into her brother's arms. He stood up to catch the girl, and Kaylee was only moments behind in joining in on the group hug.

When the doctor's face became visible again over their shoulders, he was clearly crying. Even if Jack hadn't caught that glimpse of his face, it would have been obvious in the choked note of his voice when he began speaking. "River, I, I'm just so sorry. So sorry," his eyes, which had been squeezed tightly shut, popped open and sought out Mal. "Captain, I didn't mean … I'm _sorry_!"

Jack half expected the next voice to be Jayne's making some nasty crack at Simon's expense, but the big man surprised him yet again. When O'Neill looked in his direction, the merc was pointedly staring at the wall and not saying a word. Huh. O'Neill was turning back, in the process of trying to figure out what to say to the young man to convince him what the Goa'uld had done wasn't his fault, when Reynolds beat him to it.

"Weren't yourself, way I understand it," the captain said gruffly. "Ain't no need for feeling guiltful on account of what some snake-thing did wearin' your face."

River, whose face he couldn't see, was likely also crying from the sound of her voice when she added shortly after, "Don't be a boob, Simon."

"I'd think you would have figured out by now I can't help it, _mei mei,_" the doctor replied in a slightly more even tone.

The work of the two Carters on the data crystals only took a couple of days longer. It didn't tell them everything they could want to know about the Goa'uld's plans and exactly how far they were spread through the Alliance, but it did answer a few of the most pressing questions. Like Nirrti, Aditi was attempting to engineer the perfect hoktaur host for herself, and somewhere along the line the two snakeheads had come together in working on that mutual goal. Where Nirrti had approached it from the angle of manipulating the genetics and hoping for a good result, Aditi had opted to try and achieve the results she wanted through surgeries - with the intention of figuring out how to accomplish the same changes genetically later if necessary. A few of the more scattered notes they'd found referred in part to some kind of breeding program implemented over time, so the two Goa'ulds were probably not working entirely separate plans. Unfortunately there wasn't much information on the crystal about the details, with the few references that did exist having referrals to a project archive on Sihnon. There was also a small mention of shipments of naquadah coming from locations on both Persephone and Bellerophon, confirming the similar readings from those two outposts meant similar functions.

What was there did make it clear the Goa'uld had been behind the Academy River had been sent off to, where they'd done those terrible experiments on her. However, while they'd gathered little information from the site about those experiments themselves, this particular data repository had contained a lot of information on how the Academy had been set up through shady deals with third parties and nudges given to various scientists in the Alliance on better methods of accomplishing goals they were already looking into. Again, it was all unusually subtle and hands off for a Goa'uld. Of course it wasn't entirely unprecedented. On Hanka, so far as the people living there had known, Nirrti had been an absent goddess. It was only some time after she'd killed them all after the arrival of the SGC that anyone realized she'd been floating above the planet in her ship, manipulating and experimenting on the populace all along.

Of course, trying to find the best quality hosts wasn't new territory for the Goa'uld, and even attempting to manufacture them to specification was something SG-1 had come across. It also neatly explained why the Goa'uld wanted the most diverse group of humans Aditi could discreetly get her hands on to start off the project. Before the event the Tok'ra had thought killed her, Aditi had more than a handful of planets under her control, and she had chosen "colonists" from that pool and additional "stock" she traded for with other Goa'uld and – importantly - a few bounty hunters offering in bulk.

Although the Tau'ri homeworld had remained generally unknown to the Goa'uld, SG-1 had run across previous instances of populations moved from Earth after the Stargate had been buried. The people of the Alliance having some spotty knowledge of Earth's history made it a pretty solid conclusion at least one of the bounty hunters selling to Aditi had been using the planet as their own private stock supplier. It was disappointing, but not surprising that her notes on her purchases this far after the fact could not be used to trace those lost Earth people or whoever kidnapped them. Although anyone trying that now would have a much harder time trying to get to Earth undetected.

How they'd gotten from including some people of Earth to believing they were colonists from a destroyed Earth was a little less clear. The why of that particular story being chosen was not detailed in any of the material at hand, but the how had been documented as part of the overall experiment. In the days when they'd both been bigger powers in the Goa'uld hierarchy, Aditi and Setesh had been allies to the extent of having worked on developing more potent forms of nishta together. From Selmak's recollection, they'd had a falling out over Aditi being unwilling to share her more successful efforts with her ally. A whole set of notes early in the project were about potential side effects of the heavy doses she'd used, and went into enough attendant detail to make it clear she'd used her formula liberally on the fake colonists, leaving them to wake up on ships headed into a handpicked out-of-the-way system flown by her hand selected and non-tattooed Jaffa. Said Jaffa explained the chosen story and the nishta made everyone believe it. Had those from Earth remembered just enough to twist a more vague original story to fit their own memories? Had Aditi chosen the name of a previous homeworld of some of her new slaves at random?

It ultimately wasn't important, and it still didn't explain the size of the Alliance or why they'd been allowed to become so technologically advanced compared to other populations under snakey thumbs. Nor did it explain why Aditi had chosen to allow most of the actual manipulations to be done by her Jaffa or unknowing human rubes thinking they were working to their own ends. The parts of the project they had details for showed very little involvement of the Jaffa, and there were only the barest hints of the involvement of lesser Goa'uld, mostly inferred from the Tok'ra's general knowledge of Goa'uld shorthand. The best the Carters could come up with were some vague references to additional parts of the project noting that details were to be found in other archives. Unfortunately, their scan of the system had only turned up one other site that was currently unaccounted for. Whether bases on Sihnon and elsewhere were simply not using enough Goa'uld technology to be detected or had more advanced shields than the Tok'ra were currently familiar with ultimately didn't matter much. Either way left SG-1 with an unmanageably large haystack.

Even so, on the short list of things Jack actually liked about the Goa'uld, their predictability ranked right up with their arrogance. Both were things that it was good to see in an enemy. The fact Aditi had gone so far out of their usual patterns of behavior and there was no clear indication of why did not sit well.

It didn't sit too terribly well with the Tok'ra either, Jack could tell, though of course they didn't come right out and say so. The Tok'ra were long term planners, though, and secretive on top of it. Considering their usual M.O., they'd try to infiltrate the place and it'd take ages before anything actually came of it. Still, even if he wasn't all that fond of their methods, it was clear this was far more the kind of operation the Tok'ra were suited to.

SG-1, on the other hand, didn't know if they _should_ do anything. Trying to go back to the Alliance system a third time, they'd either be dealing with the same secure compound in the heart of the Alliance or they'd have to suss out the Goa'uld's location all over again. The Alliance was big, most of it _wasn't_ made up of Goa'uld, and the SGC did not make it a habit of interfering with other government's politics if they could help it. The Alliance didn't have FTL drives now, but the Goa'uld could easily give them the technology and point them towards Earth. There were other ugly possibilities, too. Nirrti had killed every living person on Hanka save one when the SGC had set up a research base there, and their further involvement here could make something like that more likely.

No decision they made could be made lightly, considering all of that. Furthermore those in charge of the SGC's finances weren't likely to be too in favor of spending so much time and resources on a Goa'uld who had yet to show any interest in Earth. Unfortunately that left them with a bit of an issue. The _Serenity_ crew was all back together again, and Jack knew without asking that they wanted to go home. Yet if they went back with the Alliance as it was without SG-1 doing anything, it would only be a matter of time before the Goa'uld, or those working for them, tracked the ship and its crew down again. Jack knew exactly how he'd feel if someone tried to tell him he couldn't go back home. He was pretty sure Reynolds was not going to deal with it any better.

Jack considered trying to put off telling the crew until after the Tok'ra had given them the scoop on what their plans would be. At least until he realized that once again, the Tok'ra weren't necessarily going to actually _tell_ SG-1 what their plans were. They'd dealt with the snakeheads enough to know that just because they had been the ones to bring the Tok'ra in, it didn't necessarily mean the Tok'ra would let them in on anything. The odds were significantly higher than normal since they were working with Jacob on this one, but even that wasn't a guarantee.

As it turned out, waiting wouldn't have worked anyway. With the Tok'ra returning Simon sans Goa'uld, Reynolds approached him looking for somebody with a plan. As much as he was half-tempted to stall the man, because he didn't want to hear the complaints about getting back to the ship, Reynolds wasn't an idiot. Well, at least not always.

So Jack laid it out. The Tok'ra worked by their own agenda, the SGC was grossly outmatched by the whole of the Alliance. Even if they tried to separate out the Goa'uld influence, it was not that simple. Supposing they could again find and then get rid of Aditi, they didn't know how many Jaffa there were or how many minion Goa'ulds. Even if they got all the Jaffa, they didn't know how many perfectly normal people in the government were following the Goa'uld's directives without even knowing there was someone else pulling their strings. Any of the above likely knew about or could find out about _Serenity_ and wouldn't have any reason to be less willing to come after them again.

Despite the fact that he was pretty sure Reynolds already knew all of this, and his lack of surprise bore that out, the man still asked, "So where does that leave me and mine?"

"We could probably fit most of you in at the SGC somewhere, I suppose," Jack began, and Reynolds grimaced. Stopping, Jack just gave the man the ol' Teal'c eyebrow raise.

"Don't think I'm not grateful to your people, Colonel. That ain't it at all. I was just stupid enough to hope after all that _go tsao de_ with Miranda they'd leave us alone. Ever since we met, it's been nothing but one big downhill rush after another. All I wanted was to have my ship, keep a good crew on it, and live my life."

"Well, the Goa'uld are right bastards for messing up everybody else's plans for peaceful living," Jack acknowledged.

"We couldn't at least go back for my ship?" Reynolds asked, trying to sound offhand about it.

"Sorry. If we had a mothership, we could. Captured one once. Had to blow it up."

"Huh. Your friendly little alien fella Thor couldn't..." Reynolds started hopefully.

"Thor pretty much comes and goes as he pleases. We could ask, but all the Asgard are pretty busy with the Replicators, and to be frank? With the SGC program still a big secret to the public, there's nowhere to put your ship anyway. Even then, the NID or someone like them would probably try to take it and there's really nothing we would be able to do."

Reynolds finally gave up at that, frowning pensively and giving him a distracted nod before stalking off down the tunnels. By the time they all gathered together again for the evening meal that night, it was clear the rest of the crew had been informed about their inability to go back, as all of them looked quite down. O'Neill didn't take it personally, he knew most of them liked the SGC well enough, but it wasn't their home. He thought about how he'd feel if the Goa'uld invaded Earth and he survived and had to take refuge somewhere else. Just thinking about it made it feel like there was a gaping hole in his chest, but his sympathy didn't lend itself to generating any new solutions to the underlying problems.

Jacob approached the two groups as the rest of the Tok'ra were heading off on their own various errands after the meal, his face set in that way that meant business. "I think we've gotten all we're going to get out of the crystals and the Goa'uld we took from the doctor. The High Council is reluctant to do anything immediate. Since Aditi doesn't seem to have more than a handful of lesser Goa'uld minions, attempting to infiltrate her operation would be very tricky for us. We are agreed that it's necessary to keep an eye out to make sure they don't develop hyperdrive technology and come calling with millions of people at their disposal, but …"

"We're pretty much done here?" Jack finished for him.

Jacob nodded. "The High Council wants me to extend our thanks for bringing this matter to their attention. They promise to keep you informed of any important developments, should they arise, and do not want to delay your return to the SGC any longer."

"So, thanks, get lost, don't call us, we'll call you?" O'Neill quipped.

Jacob smirked. "If you wanna put it that way. Sam?" The father/daughter pair stepped away from the rest of them to have a short conversation. O'Neill took the opportunity to check with his team and Reynolds to make sure they'd packed up anything they'd brought here with them. Since the Tok'ra were planning on moving this base in short order, they were allowing the use of their Gate for the return to the SGC rather than the group having to take the tel'tak back to some random planet to gate back home.

Unsurprisingly, the somber mood of the _Serenity_ crew hung on through their journey back through the Stargate and the briefing with General Hammond that followed. They didn't really add much to the conversation, just sat in silence as SG-1 related what had happened in their system and at the Tok'ra base. Sam, who had been doing a great deal of the talking, since she had done the most work with the Tok'ra on decoding the information they'd found, finally came to her conclusion stating it was clearly not safe to return the _Serenity _crew back to the Alliance's system.

General Hammond cleared his throat and turned to Captain Reynolds. "Now, son, I can't imagine you're pleased with this turn of events. I wish we could do more for you. We just don't have the resources or the approval to remove the Goa'uld from your government. If you decide to return home, the SGC cannot come to your aid again. If you don't, we have some options to discuss."

"Options?" Inara asked, when the captain didn't speak up immediately.

Hammond inclined his head in a short, sharp nod. "We have a number of allies across this galaxy that would be willing to take you in. Staying here on Earth is also an option, and we would possibly be able to offer several of you positions within the SGC, if you wanted."

"Oh," she replied. "I – I think we'd want to know more about our other options before we agree to anything? Right now I think we're all just a little too upset to make any decisions."

Reynolds gave a peculiar little half grimace and finally spoke. "Inara's not wrong."

"Very well," the General said. "We'll see you settled into quarters here for the interim, and talk about this again in a few days. You're dismissed, SG-1."

It wasn't the first time the SGC had fielded refugees of one stripe or another, by any means. One of the geek departments had a list of allied planets that had agreed they would take people already written up. It listed characteristics of the societies and planets and any restrictions on who they were willing to accept, and Jack gave the _Serenity_ crew a copy of the list later that day.

He wasn't really surprised only some of the crew showed any particular interest in looking it over. Kaylee, for one. The one thing they all seemed to be agreed on was that they wanted to stick together. One of the problems was nearly all of the allies the SGC had that were willing to take people in tended to be the ones who were vastly technologically inferior. Considering the crew of the Firefly consisted of an engineer, a pilot, a surgeon, and a gun enthusiast among others, living someplace like the Land of Light wasn't really going to have too much appeal for them.

Jack kept an ear out for their discussions, and knew there was some talk about a few of the options. After all, the vast majority of the planets in the Alliance that a ship like _Serenity _could sit down on were often little nicer than arid deserts. The idea of settling down on a beach planet, or one with rich forests, had a certain amount of appeal O'Neill could understand. Still, the crew was smart enough to figure the novelty of such a thing would only last so long.

Meanwhile, the SGC was making its own pitches to several of the crew. Kaylee, with all her intricate knowledge of the ship engines of her civilization – even if they weren't hyperdrives, was certainly of use to them. The medical staff was courting Simon. By the same token as Kaylee had advanced mechanical knowledge, the doctor knew all kinds of things that might be of use in their field. Wash was a brilliant pilot who claimed to be able to fly anything. Even without anyone mentioning anything about River's more specialized abilities, the girl was brilliant and could certainly find a place with any of the departments that appealed to her.

The rest of the crew was a little bit more of a question mark. It wasn't that Mal, Zoe, and Jayne didn't have useful skills. It was a matter of those skills generally already being covered by the military contingent of the base. The SGC was a military operation, and those in charge liked it that way because of the clarity it gave in terms of responsibilities and duties of the people holding the weapons. The SGC had made an exception for Teal'c on Jack's word, but that was an unusual circumstance. First of all, he had irreplaceable insider knowledge of the Goa'uld and Jaffa, and on top of that, Teal'c was certainly more disciplined than pretty much anybody, which helped his case quite a bit and wasn't exactly true of the trio from _Serenity_. Even beyond that little snag, Mal and Zoe weren't exactly comfortable with the idea of getting re-involved in the military, and Jayne. Well, Jayne. O'Neill was absolutely certain the one thing they didn't want was Jayne running amok without Reynolds to keep him in check.

In theory, though, they could find a place on the teams. Considering the teams operated elsewhere from Earth, it wasn't an impossible thought. Then there was Inara. On the surface, her profession back in their home system had centered around the nuances of a single culture and the sex trade that was pretty much illegal or shameful amongst all their allies. Still, a great deal of her training, at least from what Daniel had learned from all his questioning, had revolved around learning how to read and placate people. Those were talents that could be of use to an organization which spent a lot of time meeting new people and negotiating treaties. She had also shown a great deal of interest in Daniel's work of cataloging cultures and items. She was no River, by any means, but if the archeology department had managed to absorb Nyan, they would have a place for her there, too.

Although they continued to discuss various planets, it was clear that none of the crew's hearts were really in it. Word came several months later from the Tok'ra that they'd gone back to Alliance space and found Aditi's compound, as well as the other sites they'd detected, completely deserted with no obvious traces of where they'd moved. The Tok'ra were still keeping an eye on that corner of space, but clearly nothing was going to be resolved there anytime soon. By that point, the crew accepted the news with disappointment, but no real surprise or protest.

As time continued to pass, the various crew members volunteered to do more and more random odd jobs around the base most related to their own interests and fields of expertise. It was less that they ever made a definitive decision to stay with the SGC, and more they just gradually blended their way into the structure there. As much as they found purpose for themselves in Earth's missions of exploring and defending the galaxy, and even seemed relatively content most of the time, none of them were ready to give up on someday finding their way home. And despite the time that passed, home was still a dinky old firefly class transport ship, left abandoned and rusting on a desolate moon in the middle of nowhere.

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A/N: I now understand in excruciatingly painful detail why so many crossover stories in particular wind up abandoned. It doesn't help that I have problems with endings to begin with. I know some of the characters were oddly quiet at points despite my best efforts to juggle them all in somewhere, and there were a few bits I felt dragged excessively, but after sitting on this for two years it was time to call it done. I hope the stopping point I chose wasn't too terrible, and I hope everyone who read all the way down to this enjoyed it at least a little bit. I also want to generally thank anyone who has taken or will take the time to leave feedback. So saying, this is definitively the end of this story - no sequels will appear.


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